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GENERAL GRANT. 



MARCHING TO VICTORY 

THE SECOND PERIOD 

OF 

THE WAR OF THE REBELLION 

INCLUDING THE YEAR 1863 



BY 



CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN 

AUTHOR OF -'THE BOYS OF '70." "THE STORY OF LIBERTY" "OLD TIMES IN THE COLONIES' 
"BUILDING THE NATION" "DRUM-BEAT OF THE NATION" &o. 



illustvatcb 



NEW YORK 
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 

1889 






Copyriglit, 1888, by Harpkr & Brothers. 
All rights reserved. 



2)eMcate& 

TO 

THE VETERANS OF THE ARMIES OF THE UNION 

WHO MADE THE FLAG OF OUR COUNTRY 

THE EMBLEM OF THE WORLD'S BEST HOPE 



INTRODUCTION. 



MARCHING TO VICTORY" is the second volume of tlie series 
relating to the "War of the Rebellion, covering the middle period 
of the struggle of the people of the United States for the preservation of 
the Union. It treats of the events of the year 1863 — distinguished by a 
series of victories to the armies of the Union, of discomfiture to those of 
the Confederate States. 

The year began auspiciously for the cause of the Union in the triumph 
of the Army of the Cumberland on the field of Stone River, in Tennessee. 
Following the chronological order of events, the beginning of the month 
of May witnessed the disastrous defeat of the Union Army of the Poto- 
mac at Chancellorsville, and at the same time the repulse of the Confed- 
erates at Suffolk, in Virginia. 

While these events were transpiring east of the Alleghanies, the Union 
Army of the Tennessee began a strategic movement which resulted in the 
victories of Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hills, Big Black 
River, and the siege of Vicksburg. 

The achievements of the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg, the 
Army of the Tennessee at Vicksburg, and the army at Port Hudson on 
the Mississippi, in midsummer — the severance of the States of Louisiana, 
Texas, and Arkansas from the other States of the Confederacy, rendering 
co-operation between the sections impossible, by the opening of the great 
river to commerce, under the protection of the naval forces — marked 
the culmination of Confederate power. Taken in connection with the 
situation of affairs in England and France, the events of July were deci- 
sive, not only in the struggle for the preservation of the Union, but in the 
history of civilization. 

During the summer and early autumn the Confederates in Middle 
Tennessee were forced to abandon that State, while Eastern Tennessee, 



vifl INTKODUCTION. 

■\vliicli had been loyal to the Union, was brought once more under the 
protection of the United States. These successes were followed by the 
battle of Chickamauga — won by the Confederates, but resulting in no 
advantage to the Confederate cause. 

The closing months of the year were distinguished by Union victories 
on Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and at Knoxville, and by the 
reducing of Fort Sumter to a shapeless ruin, a heap of crumbled masonry, 
with every gun dismounted; while from Morris Island — from the spot 
where the Confederates had inaugurated the war — Union cannon were 
raining shells upon the city of Charleston. 

During the year the Confederate Government saw the fading away of 
all hope of I'ecognition as a nation b}' the Government of Great Britain. 
The iron-clad war vessels which had been constructed with Confederate 
money by British ship-builders, and which were intended for the dispersion 
of the Union fleets blockading Wilmington and Charleston, and which 
were supposed to be sufficiently powerful to send the monitors, one by 
one, to the bottom of the sea, were prevented from leaving English ports 
by the order of the British Government, which had been compelled to 
act by the resolute protest of the United States. There was still the 
glimmering hope that through the interference of the Emperor of 
France with the affairs of Mexico, and the establishment of an empire 
in that country in place of a republic, the United States would be em- 
broiled in a foreign war, which would result advantageously to the Con- 
federate Government ; but in this the Confederates were doomed to dis- 
appointment. 

January 1, 1863, will ever stand in history as the day upon which 
four millions of the African race received their freedom at the hands of 
Abraham Lincoln. The close of the year beheld several thousand of the 
able-bodied men thus emancipated from slavery voluntarily enlisting un- 
der the Stars and Stripes for the preservation of the Union. At Fort 
Wagner and on other fields the colored troops, by their discipline, cour- 
age, and manhood, manifested their right to citizenship. 

Other victories than those of the battle-field were achieved during the 
year. The prejudice of centuries against negroes was swept away, and they 
became citizens of the republic, entitled to equal rights and privileges 
with their fellow-men. 

There were victories not only in the Western World, but beyond the 
Atlantic, where, despite all the efforts of the nobility and aristocracy of 
England, and of the trading and manufacturing classes, who for selfish 



INTRODUCTION. ix 

ends favored tlie cause of the Confederacy, tlie people — tlie toilers and 
wage-earners — when starvation was staring them in tlie face, resolutely 
gave their allegiance to the cause of the Union, comprehending by an 
instinct more true and subtle than reason that the armies of the Union 
were fighting a battle for the oppressed of every land ; and so, by their 
steadfast adherence to their convictions, the Government of Great Britain 
was constrained to refrain from any recognition of the Confederacy, 
except as a belligerent power. 

In this volume, as in the " Drum-beat of the Nation," I have endeav- 
ored to set forth impartially and truly the cause, scope, and meaning of 
the war by a grouping of leading events. It has been my desire to lay 
aside all prejudice, and to see the questions at issue as the people of the 
seceding States saw them, duly recognizing their sincerity of conviction 
and adherence to the idea that the authority of the State was greater than 
that of the Nation ; but the archives of the Confederate Government bear 
witness that the so-called " Rights of the States " disappeared almost at 
the beginning of the war, and that the Confederate Government, through 
the passage of the Conscription act, became a military despotism w\aged 
only for the preservation of a government based on slavery. I have 
endeavored to do full justice to the endurance of hardship, and to the 
bravery of the soldiers of the Confederacy, and the great ability of those 
who commanded them ; to set forth truthfully tlie treatment of the Union 
men of the South by the Confederate Government, the attitude of the 
so-called Peace Party of the Northern States, the hatred to the negro, 
the opposition to the Proclamation of Emancipation, and the enlistment 
of colored troops. 

To comprehend the meaning of the war, we must ever keep in mind 
the nature of the struggle — that it was between free and slave labor, 
between aristocracy and democracy ; a contest of ideas and institutions 
marshalling the aristoci'acy of Great Britain on the side of the Con- 
federacy, the starving spinners and weavers — the hard-working men 
and women of that country and of all Europe — on the side of the 
United States. 

Sophistries and false issues fade away with the flight of time, and as 
the perspective lengthens we are able to comprehend the greatness of the 
struggle and its influence upon the world's civilization. 

The " Drum-beat of the Nation " and " Marching to Victory " have not 
been written from a desire to picture the carnage and desolation of war. 
I would fain shut forever from my eye the scenes of blood, but behind 



X INTRODUCTION. 

the lurid pictures are the sacrifice, devotion, and loyalty to the flag of our 
country, as the emblem of the most beneficent government the world has 
ever seen — the loftiest ideal of Justice, Right, and Liberty attained by the 
human race. I write that the present and future generations of the boys 
and girls may know that through such sacrifice and devotion the great 
principles upon which the Government of the United States was estab- 
lished were preserved to the world. 

Charles Carleton Coffin. 
Boston, September, 1888. • 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

The Hour of Gloom 1 

CHAPTER II. 
Other Countries 16 

CHAPTER III. 
In the South-west 36 

CHAPTER IV. 
Getting in Rear op Vicksburg 63 

CHAPTER V. 
The Atlantic Coast 83 

CHAPTER VI. 
In Virginia 99 

CHAPTER VII. 
Cotton Famine in England 114 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Battle of Chancellorstille 127 

CHAPTER IX. 

Spring of 1863 160 

CHAPTER X. 

Confederate Northward March 177 

CHAPTER XI. 

An Unexpected Battle 200 



Xll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XII. 

PAGK 

Little Round Top 228 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Cemetery Ridge ; 259 

CHAPTER XIV. 
The Old Flag on the Mississippi 283 

CHAPTER XV. 

Midsummer, 1863 316 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Assault on Fort Wagner 338 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Operations against Wagner and Sumter 351 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
East Tennessee 365 

CHAPTER XIX. 
From Murfreesboro to Chickamauga 385 

CHAPTER XX. 
Chickamauga 401 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Holding Chattanooga 420 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge 434 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Defence of Knoxville 456 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
Events in Virginia 462 

CHAPTER XXV. 

Close of the Year 1863 471 

INDEX 479 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



General Grant Fronthpiece 

Stone River, Midnight, December 31, 

1862 3 

Tlie Picket-guard 7 

Oliver P. Morton 11 

Gen. H. B. Carrington 13 

Charles Francis Adams 16 

Lord John Russell 17 

Hon. William H. Seward 19 

John M. Mason 22 

JohnSlidell 23 

Prince Albert 25 

Emperor Napoleon III 27 

Capture of the Harriet Lane 37 

Fort Hindman at Arkansas Post 40 

Destruction of the Weslfield 41 

United States Sloop-of-war Hartford .... 44 
Farragut passing the Batteries at Port 

Hudson 45 

Port Hudson 48 

Fooling the Confederates 49 

Cutting the Canal 53 

Providence Lake Expedition 54 

Experiment by Moon Lake 55 

Experiment by Steele's Bayou 56 

Steamboats in the Woods 57 

March through the Swamp 59 

Running the Batteries at Vicksburg 63 

Grant's Movement in Rear of Vicksburg 69 

Champion Hill 69 

Crocker's Charge 71 

Grierson's Raid 74 

Battle of Big Black River Bridge 75 

Destroying the Railroad 78 

Grierson entering Baton Rouge 79 



PAGE 

The Iron-mills 84 

Destruction of the Nashville by the Iron- 
clad Monitor Montaiik 85 

Bombardment of Sumter 89 

The JSfeiD Ironsides 94 

Deserted Negro Cabins 97 

The Army of the Potomac in Huts 101 

In the Storm 105 

General Hooker 107 

Shipping Cotton to England before the 

War 115 

The Meeting in Exeter Hall 117 

The George Grisioold at Liverpool 121 

Burning of the Jacob Bell by the Flor- 
ida 125 

Map of Chancellorsville 133 

Wilderness Church 138 

Where Stonewall Jackson was Shot. . . . 144 

Chancellorsville House 146 

Close of the Battle — Repulse of the Con- 
federates 153 

Salem Church 157 

Gen. J. E. B. Stuart 166 

Brandy Station 169 

Battle of Brandy Station 171 

Map of Cavalry Engagements at Aldie 

and Upperville 179 

Beginning of the Fight at Upperville. .. 181 

General Reynolds 187 

General Meade • 191 

Movement of Union Army to Gettys- 
burg 192 

Burning of Columbia Bridge 193 

Position of Union and Confederate Ar- 
mies, Sunset, June 30, 1863 196 



XIV 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



]\Iajoi'-general Buford 198 

Theological Seminary 200 

Where the Battle began 202 

Opening of Battle at Gettysburg, 8 a.m., 

July 1,1863 203 

John Burns 204 

John Burns brought to his House after 

the Battle 205 

Beginning of Infantry Engagement, 10 

A.M., July 1, 1863 206 

Capture of Confederates in the Railroad 

at Gettysburg 208 

Railroad Excavation 209 

Pennsylvania College 210 

Gen. O. O. Howard 211 

View from Position held by Baxter's 

Brigade, looking east 212 

First Day at Gettysburg, at 3 p.m 213 

Where Wilkeson's Battery and the Sev- 
enteenth Connecticut stood . . 217 

Bayard Wilkeson. . 218 

First Corps — Seminary Ridge, 3.30 p.m., 

July 1, 1863 221 

Major-general W. S. Hancock 224 

General Meade's Headquarters 229 

General Lee's Headquarters 230 

Entrance to the Cemetery 232 

Josephine Miller and her Stove 234 

Peach Orchard 236 

Gen. Daniel E. Sickles 237 

Position of Union and Confederate 

Troops, 3.30 p m., July 2 238 

Bigelow's, Phillips's, and Clark's Batter- 
ies going into Position 241 

Hazlett's Battery 247 

The Ninth Massachusetts Battery by 

Trostle's House . ... 251 

Attack on Cemetery Hill 253 

Trostle's Door-yard^Day after the Bat- 
tle 255 

Where Weiderick's Battery stood 257 

Attack of Pickett's and Anderson's Di- 
visions 267 

View from Little Round Top 273 

Position of Troops third day at Gettys- 
burg 275 

Cavalry Engagement — third day 278 

]Map of the Siege of Vicksburg 286 



The Attack upon Vicksburg on the 

North Side of the City 287 

Huts on the Hill-side 291 

Intrenchments of McPherson's Corps. . . 295 

Sharp-shooters 299 

Blowing up the Fort 301 

Grant and Pemberton 305 

Arrival of the Union Fleet at Vicksburg 309 

Map of Port Hudson 311 

Arrival of the Steamer Imperial 312 

Saluting the Old Flag at Port Hudson . . 313 
Burning of the New York Coloied Oi-- 

phau Asylum 323 

Hanging a Negro 325 

Dragging Colonel O'Brien's Body 327 

The Rioters and the New York Seventh 

Regiment 328 

Morgan's Raiders 329 

Fort Wagner, from the Channel 333 

Map of Charleston and Vicinity 335 

Bombardment of Fort Wagner 339 

Mortar Battery before Wagner 341 

Col. Robert G Shaw 343 

The Tacony burning Merchant -vessels 

and Fishing-craft 353 

Digging Trenches and mounting Guns . 355 
Union Sharp-shooters in Front of Fort 

Wagner 356 

Capture of the Atlanta 357 

Map of Approaches to Wagner 360 

Appearance of Sumter after Six Days' 

Bombardment 3G1 

Interior of a Mountaineer's Home in 

Tennessee 366 

Corn-mill in East Tennessee 367 

Andrew Johnson '. . 369 

W. G Brownlow 371 

Union Refugees 373 

Hanging Union Men in Tennessee 375 

Burnside's Reception at Knoxville 379 

Burnside's Armj^ occupying Cumbei-land 

Gap 380 

Massacre of the Citizens of Lawrence . . 382 
Drawing Artillery through the Mount- 
ains 387 

Map of Kentucky and Tennessee 389 

Rosecrans's Movement to Chickamauga 390 
Lookout Mountain, September, 1863 . . . 393 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



XV 



VAGK 

Map of the Battle of Cbickamauga 403 

Thomas's Corps at Chickamauga 411 

Major-general George H. Thomas 414 

Confederate Riflemen Firing upon a 

Union Wagon-train 423 

Position of Union and Confederate 

Troops, November 23, 1863 426 

View from the Summit of Lookout 

Mountain 427 

Hazen's Brigade Landing 429 

Steamer Chattanooga, built by the Sol- 
diers 432 



TAGK 

Chattanooga and the Encampments of 
the two Armies 435 

Capture of Confederate Works bj' Cra- 
ven's House, on Lookout Mountain, 
by Hooker's Corps 439 

Battle of Lookout Mountain 443 

Rebel Battery on the Top of Lookout 
Mountain 447 

Capture of Confederate Cannon on jNIis- 
sionary Ridge 453 

Attack of Longstreet on Fort Sanders. . 459 

Averill's Troop in a Storm 469 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE HOUR OF GLOOM. 

^P^HERE has been no other night in the history of our country like 
-*- that of December 31, 1862. On the banks of Stone River, in Ten- 
nessee, the soldiers of the Army of the Cumberland were lying where 
they had fought through the day, with the dead and dying around them. 
They had been driven from their chosen position of the morning, and 
the conflict was still undecided. Those whose duty it was to care for 
the wounded were out upon the field, where the battle had raged most 
fiercely, groping their way in the darkness or by the dim light of lanterns 
searching for the wounded. For this army, which had marched through 
snow and sleet and rain from their camp at Nashville to attack an army 
superior in number, New- Year's greetings were to be from the cannon's 
brazen lip, and the morning was to be ushered in with a renewal of the 
strife — the giving up of other lives that the nation might live. 

The soldiers of the Confederate army opposing them were hovering 
around their bivouac fires congratulating themselves over the success 
which had attended them through the day, and looking forward to the 
morning of the New Year with confident expectation of completing the 
victory. They were animated by a lofty idea — truly believing that they 
were fighting for liberty and independence. 

On the banks of the Mississippi between Memphis and Yicksburg were 
the soldiers of the Union, who had won victories at Donelson, Shiloh, Cor- 
inth, luka, who had vainly tried to gain the bluSs of Chickasaw near 
Yicksburg, but who were determined that the Father of AYaters should 
flow from its source to the sea through an undivided country, whose em- 
blem of sovereignty should ever be the Stars and Stripes, 
1 



2 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

From the bluffs of Yicksburg the Confederate soldiers of the army 
under General Pemberton could look down upon the winding river and 
behold in the distance, upon the moonlit w\aters, the fleet of Union gun- 
boats which had opened the river southward to that point, but which 
were powerless to drive them from their stronghold. With Yicksburg and 
Port Hudson in their possession, with heavy cannon high above the 
stream, they could send a plunging fire upon the Federal craft and hold 
the gate-ways of the mighty river against all assault. Never by any at- 
tack from gunboats could those places be taken. 

On that last night of the year the soldiers of the Army of the Poto- 
mac, around their camp-fires on the Stafford hills opposite Fredericksburg, 
in Virginia, were thinking of loved ones at home, of peaceful scenes far 
away, of those who never again would keep step to the drum-beat, who 
had gone down in battle, or whose lives had ebbed away in the hospital. 
Twenty months had passed since the humiliation of the flag they loved at 
Fort Sumter ; great battles had been fought ; they had seen more defeats 
than victories. They had been so near to Richmond that in the silent 
hours of night, or on the calm still Sabbath morn, they could hear the 
church-bells of the city toll the hours. Then came Seven Pines, Gaines- 
ville, Fair Oaks, Glendale, and Malvern. Upon the plains of Manassas, 
through mismanagement, inefliciency, jealousy, want of co-operation on 
the part of those in command, there had been defeat and disaster. From 
their camp on that closing night of the year they could look across the 
Rappahannock to the field where twelve thousand of their comrades had 
fallen in battle. They could claim only one great victory — Antietam. 

The sentinels of the Confederate army encamped upon the heights of 
Fredericksburg, triumphant on so many hard -fought fields, could auda- 
ciously fling their sarcastic taunts, their jests and gibes, across the gleam- 
ing river to the soldiers of the Union and inquire how soon the Army of 
the Potomac was goin^ to march into Richmond. 

When the war began, the people throughout the country, North and 
South alike, confidently expected that it would soon be over, not compre- 
hending that it was to be a struggle for supremacy between ideas and 
institutions. 

The people of the Southern States seceded from the Union and formed 
a confederacy to maintain what they sincerely regarded as the rights of 
the States. They looked upon the election of Abraham Lincoln as a men- 
ace to the institution of slavery, which they had come to believe was di- 
vinely established by Almighty God — that it was the best form of society 
for the Southern States. They were determined to be free and indepen- 



THE HOUR OF GLOOM. 5 

dent. The Confederate soldiers did not see that their sacrifice, valor, and 
devotion were in reality given for the continuance of an institution which 
ever would widen the distance between the rich and the poor, which estab- 
lished class distinction and degraded labor — that tliey were in truth hero- 
ically fighting against their own best welfare. Many thousand soldiers in 
the Confederate army had enlisted voluntarily to sustain the Confederacy, 
but other thousands were there not from their own free choice. 

At the beginning of the conflict, when the drum - beat was heard in 
every village and hamlet, there had been a quick mustering of men in the 
South as in the North, alike inspired by a lofty patriotism : one for inde- 
pendence, the other for the Union. In the Southern States they enlisted 
for one year, under the expectation that before the end of the twelve- 
month their independence would be secured ; but the outcome of events 
indicated a desperate and long-continued struggle. Patriotic ardor in the 
midwinter of 1862 no longer brought volunteers to fill up the ranks 
thinned by battle and disease. AVith the opening of the year the Con- 
federate Government beheld witli alarm the dying out of the early 
enthusiasm. The term for which the soldiers had enlisted would soon 
expire. ]^o stirring appeals could induce them to re-enlist. They had 
fought valiantly to preserve their rights, but they saw State sovereignty 
and good faith disappear in a twinkling. The Confederate Congress in 
secret session, April 16th, under an iron-clad rule which limited discussion 
to ten minutes,(') passed a law which took all able-bodied citizens between 
the ages of eighteen and thirty -five from the control of the States and 
placed them under the control of Jefferson Davis during the war, and 
which annulled all the contracts and terms of enlistment made with the 
volunteers, declaring that they must serve two years longer, or. to the end 
of the war. It was an arbitrary assumption of power, a gross violation of 
public faith with the individual soldiers, under the plea of military neces- 
sity, and a complete abandonment of the principle of the sovereignty of the 
States, to maintain which they had seceded from the Union and inaugu- 
rated the war. All rights and liberties were swept away by the act, which 
fell like a thunder-bolt upon the people. Said the Governor of Arkansas : 

"Arkansas severed her connection with the United States upon the 
doctrine of State Sovereignty. She has lavished her blood in support of 
the Confederacy. She did this because she believed that when the evil 
hour came upon her the Confederate flag would give success to the peo- 
ple. It was for liberty she struck, and not for subordination to any cre- 
ated secondary power North or South." 

From that hour to the end of the war the people of the Confederate 



6 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

States could no longer claim to be fighting to maintain what their Gov- 
ernment had deliberately abandoned. 

"This is the rich man's war and the poor man's fight,"Q were the 
words of John M. Botts, of Warrenton, Virginia. He had been a member 
of Congress before the war, and had opposed secession. He saw that the 
great slave-holders were staying at home with their slaves, and that the 
poor men who had no slaves were to be forced into the army. A few days 
before the passage of the bill Mr. Botts expressed himself strongly against 
the proposed measure, and for giving voice to his opinion suddenly found 
himself in a filthy jail in Richmond, without chair, or table, or any fur- 
niture, where no one was permitted to see him. This his testimony : 

" More than one hnndred and fifty persons were in like manner con- 
fined. Many of them were sent to Salisbury, North Carolina, where some 
went crazy and many died. In the Richmond prison they had the naked 
floors for a pallet, a log of wood for a pillow, the ceiling for a blanket. 
At Salisbury it was still worse. They were exposed to all the weather — 
cold rains and burning suns alternately. But the object in view was 
effected by my arrest and imprisonment and that of others. It effectually 
sealed every man's lips. All were afraid to express opinions under the 
reign of terror and despotism that had been established in Richmond. 
Every man felt that his personal liberty and safety required silent sub- 
mission to the tyranny of the Confederacy." 

Mr. Foote, of Tennessee, member of the Confederate Congress, ani- 
mated by humane sentiments, and indignant at the exercise of arbitrary 
power, endeavored to obtain the release of the prisoners thus confined. 
He says : 

"I obtained from the superintendent of the prison-house in Richmond, 
under the official sanction of the Department of War itself, a grim and 
shocking catalogue of several hundred prisoners then in confinement there- 
in, not one of whom was charged with anything but suspected political 
infidelity, and this, too, not upon oath in a single instance. Before I 
could take proper steps to procure the discharge of .these unhappy men, 
the second suspension of the writ of liberty occurred, and I presume that 
such of them as did not die in jail remained there until the fall of Rich- 
mond into the hands of the Federal forces^i^) 

Wielding despotic military power, and having silenced every opposing 
voice, the Confederate Government, by the Conscription act, gathered in 
as needed all able-bodied men — at first those between eighteen and thirty- 
five; later in the war extending the act to conscript all under sixty years 
of age — into the army. ^ 



THE HOUR OF GLOOM. 



At the close of 18G2 the Confederates had much reason for believ- 
ing that they would nltimately secure their independence, and for the 
confidence which they expressed of attaining that end. This the greet- 
ing of the Charleston Courier to its readers on New -Year's morning: 




THE PICKET-GUARD. 



"That we shall conquer a peace is now beyond a peradventure settled. 
If the doubt ever existed, it no longer exists." 

These the words of the Charleston Mercury : " The new year comes 
in with cheerful face. Amid the desolation of ruined homesteads, the 
wreck of private fortunes, and the sacrifice of lives, the great cause pros- 
pers. East, the foe, beaten and disheartened, has fled from our matchless 
army. West, the fierce struggle for the Mississippi Valley has begun, 



8 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

and amid the din and tumult of the unequal combat are distinguished the 
shouts of victory." 

" The future is bright with hope," were the words of the lUchmond 
Whig. 

President Davis, in his message to Congress, said : " We are justified 
in asserting with pride that the Confederate States have added another to 
the lessons taught by histoiy for the instruction of man — that they have 
afforded another example of the impossibility of subjugating a people 
determined to be free. . . . The determination of this people has become 
unalterably fixed to endure any sufferings and continue any sacrifices, 
however prolonged, until their rights to self-government and the sover- 
eignty and independence of those States shall have been triumphantly 
vindicated and firmly established." 

Of the Proclamation of Emancipation issued by President Lincoln, 
Jefferson Davis said : " We may leave it to the instincts of that common 
humanity which a beneficent Creator has implanted in the breasts of our 
fellow-men of all countries to pass judgment on a measure by which sev- 
eral millions of human beings of an inferior race, peaceful and contented 
laborers in their sj^here, are doomed to extermination, while at the same 
time they are encouraged to a generous assassination of their masters by 
the insidious recommendation to abstain from violence unless in necessary 
defence. Our own detestation of those who have attempted the most 
execrable measure recorded in the history of guilty man is tempered by 
the profound contempt for the impotent rage which it discloses." 

In the Confederate Congress Mr. Foote presented a resolution to the 
effect that the Southern States would never consent to any armistice or re- 
construction (*) until the Emancipation Proclamation was revoked ; that 
there should be no negotiation for a cessation of the war except upon 
the basis of a recognition of the Confederacy ; that there should be no 
alliance, commercial or political, with the New England States, but that 
the North-western States should have assurance of the free navigation of 
the Mississippi whenever they should withdraw from the Union. 

A great crisis confronted the people of the Northern States. The 
year closed, with the battle of Stone Piver undecided. General 
Grant, who had been moving in rear of Yicksburg, had been compelled 
to retreat ("Drum-beat of the Nation," p. 453). General Sherman had 
been repulsed at Chickasaw Bluffs, and General Burnside at Fredericks- 
burg. Discouraging as were these military events, there were political 
events far more disquieting to loyal hearts. A new Congress had been 
elected. In the Congress then in session, and which would end on March 



THE HOUR OF GLOOM. 9 

4th, there were seventy-eight members who supported President Lincoln 
to thirty-seven opposed to his administration ; in the new Congress there 
would be only fifty-seven upon whom he could rely for support, while 
sixty-seven would be opposed to him. In the elections New York, Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, which had voted for him in 1860, 
with so many true-hearted soldiers in the field fighting for the flag, now 
cast majorities against him. Many men who voted for him two years be- 
fore, who had given all their energies for the prosecution of the war for 
maintaining the Union, now turned against hiin because he had issued 
the Proclamation of Emancipation, At the beginning of the war they 
called themselves War Democrats ; but now they joined those who called 
themselves Peace Democrats, who did not wish to see the slaves set free, 
and who gave their sympathies to the South, claiming that the President 
had no Constitutional right to coerce a State to remain in the Union. 
Some of them had spoken bitter words in denunciation of President Lin- 
coln ; and when called to account by their neighbors who were loyal to 
the flag, had taken the oath of allegiance and had been allowed to go about 
their business. The soldiers called them " Copperheads," and this is the 
way they acquired the name : One day a squad of soldiers sitting by their 
camp-fire saw a copperhead snake crawling towards them, ready to strike 
with its poisonous fangs. " That snake is just like a Peace Democrat — 
kill him," shouted one of the soldiers. " Oh no ; swear him and let him 
go," said another. From that moment a Peace Democrat, in the eyes of a 
soldier, was a " Copperhead." 

The soldiers under the Stars and Stripes in battle felt that their deadli- 
est foes — those from whom they had the most to fear, who could do them 
the most harm — were not the brave and manly Confederates confronting 
them, but the insidious and secretly hostile " Copperheads," in their rear 
— poisoning public opinion, paralyzing loyal effort, denouncing President 
Lincoln as a usurper and tyrant, demanding " peace at any price " — 
who said, "You never can conquer the South." This their description 
of a " Copperhead :" 



"There was glorious news, for our arms were victorious — 

'Twas some time ago — and 'twas somewhere out West. 
The big guns were booming, the boys getting glorious; 

But one man was gloomy, and glad all the rest! 
Intending emotions delightful to damp, 

He hummed and he hawed, and he sneered and he sighed — 
A snake in the grass, and a spy in the camp. 

While the honest were laughing, the ' Copperhead ' cried. 



10 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

"There was news of a battle, and sad souls were aching 

The fate of their brave and beloved ones to learn; 
Pale wives stood all tearless, their tender hearts breaking 

For the gallant good-man who would never return! 
We had lost all but honor — so ran the sad story — 

Oh, bitter the cup that the Patriot quaffed! 
He had tears for our flag, he had sighs for our glory. 

He had groans for our dead — but the 'Copperhead' laughed.' 



A secret society was organized in the Western States, the " Mutual 
Protection Society," wliich was soon changed to " Knights of the Golden 
Circle."(') There were orders and degrees. The first was the " O, A. K." 
(Order of American Knights) ; the second, the " O. S. L." (Order of Sons 
of Liberty). To become a Knight of the Golden Circle one must enter 
first the Yestibule, beyond which were the Temple, the Inner Temple, the 
Innermost Temple. There were divisions, brigades, regiments, and com- 
panies. General Commanders, Grand Seigniors, Excellent Knights, and a 
score of officers with high-sounding names. The members of the order 
met in secret in out-of-the-way places. When a new member was to 
be inducted, the Knight Lecturer inside the door asked, "Who cometli?" 
The Warden of the Outer Court responded, "A man ! We found him in 
the dark ways of the sons of folly, bound in chains and wellnigh crushed 
to death beneath the iron heel of oppression." 

Not till the new member — the " neophyte," as he was known in the 
order — had taken several oaths did he find out just what were the politi- 
cal principles of the Knights of the Golden Circle, or what they intended 
to accomplish. These their principles : 

" The Government of the United States of America has no sovereign- 
ty, because that is an attribute belonging to the people in their respective 
State organizations, and with which they have not endowed that govern- 
ment as their common agent. . . . 

" The Federal Government can exercise only delegated power ; hence 
if those who shall have been chosen to administer that government shall 
assume to exercise power not delegated, they should he regarded and dealt 
with as icsurpers. 

" Whenever the ofiicials to whom the people have intrusted the pow- 
ers of government shall refuse to administer it in strict accordance M'ith 
its Constitution; shall assume and exercise powers not delegated, «^ is the 
inherent right and imperative duty of the people to resist such officials, 
and, if need he, expel them hy force of arms.^\°) 

The Knights of the Golden Circle were strongest in Indiana. Before 



THE HOUR OF GLOOM. 



11 



the war, tlie State for many years had been controlled by the Democratic 
party. The officials had wasted the people's money, had enriched them- 
sel\^es, had organized a system of robbery in relation to the public lands. 
One office]* fraudulently issued, in 1860, more than two million live hun- 
dred thousand dollars' worth of State stock. When the Eepublicans came 
into power in 1861, electing Oliver P. Morton governor, the men who had 
been plundering the State became exceedingly hostile to the new State 
government and to the United States. They joined the Knights of the 
Golden Circle, and directed all the movements of the order. They were 
in constant communication with the Confederates. They induced soldiers 
to desert from the army. They were very angry when President Lincoln, 
after the battle of Antietam, 
^ave notice of the issuing of 
the Proclamation of Emanci- 
pation. They said that it was 
an Abolition war. President 
Lincoln, knowing that a great 
many people in the Northern 
States were doing what they 
30uld to help the Confeder- 
ates, issued a proclamation to 
the effect that persons resist- 
ing or seeking to overthrow 
the authority of the LTnited 
States, or giving aid to the 
Confederates, should have 
trial before military courts ; 
and that the writ of habeas 
corpus, the great safeguard 
3f personal liberty in time of peace, should be suspended. The suspen- 
sion of the writ is authorized by the Constitution "when in cases of 
rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it." The President 
bad been very reluctant to proclaim martial law, but was compelled to 
:lo so by those who, while enjoying all the liberties of the Constitution, 
were treasonably at work to overthrow it. He regarded, as did all loyal 
men, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, an independent judiciary, 
trial by jury, and the writ of habeas corpus as priceless treasures. He 
loved them, and would lay down his life, if need be, for their preservation. 
Only when the life of the Nation was at stake could he bring himself 
to exercise the authority which the Constitution had given him for the 




OLIVER P. MORTON. 



12 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

suspension of the right of trial by jury and the. suspension of the writ. 
Those who sympathized with the Confederates claimed the right to de- 
nounce the President's action. While doing what they could in oppo- 
sition to his exercise of Constitutional authority they asserted all their 
rights as citizens under the Constitution. 

On the last day of December the Chief-justice of the Supreme Court 
of Indiana, M^ho was opposed to the war, issued a writ to the high sheriff 
upon Captain JS^ewman of the Eleventh United States Infantry, ordering 
him to produce before the court a soldier who had deserted, but who had 
been recovered by that officer. 

General Plenry B. Carrington, of the United States Army, who under- 
stood his duty to the Government of the United States, was commander 
of the troops in Indianapolis. " I shall maintain the authority of the 
United States,"Q he said to Chief-justice Perkins. 

" Perhaps General Carrington himself may not be exempt from arrest," 
replied the lawyer who had been employed by the Knights of the Golden 
Circle to defy the authority of the Government. 

" If the President," said the Chief -justice, " issues the proposed procla- 
mation to-morrow it will bring about a revolution, and end the United 
States Government. It will be an arbitrary act of power which should 
not be tolerated by the people. There is no way of redress but to dis- 
avow the authority of such a dictator. The writ must be served though 
the streets should flow with blood." 

" Can I not serve t]je writ without trouble ?" was the question of the 
sheriff to General Carrington. 

" Possibly, provided you have a posse of two thousand men, well drilled, 
accustomed to act in concert, and can get them down to Captain New- 
man's quarters in fifteen minutes," was the reply. He made a signal to a 
staff- officer standing by the door, who repeated it to an officer in the 
street. A moment, and the drum-beat broke the silence, and the soldiers 
of the United States, with the Stars and Stripes above them, their arms 
gleaming in the setting sun, were marching through the streets, maintain- 
ing the authority of the President. 

A few days later the legislature of Indiana, a majority of whom were 
Peace Democrats, endeavored to embarrass the United States Government 
by transferring the control of the militia and all the arms — the muskets, 
cannon, and ammunition — which had been obtained from the United 
States, to a commission consisting of three State officers — the Auditor, 
Secretary, and Treasurer — all Peace Democrats — who were also to issue 
all commissions, and have the control of the troops — an open viola- 



THE HOUR OF GLOOM. 13 

tion of the Constitution, taking the government out of the hands of Gov- 
ernor Morton, and giving it to the Knights of the Golden Circle. The 
State had in its possession eighteen thousand muskets. One branch of 
the legislature voted for the bill, whereupon Governor Morton, at mid- 
night, wrote this to General Carrington : "All arms and equipments be- 
longing to the United States in the arsenal in this city are hereby turned 
over to your possession and controh" When morning came, the men 
who were gleefully looking forward to the moinent when they would see 




GENERAL H. B. CARRINGTON. 



the arms in the hands of the Knights of the Golden Circle were eon- 
founded when they learned that the State had no arms in its possession, 
and that the arsenal was guarded by a strong force of United States 
troops. The revolutionary bill did not become a law, for whenever the 
Peace Democrats attempted to pass it, the members sustaining the Gov- 
ernment went out of the hall, leaving the House without a quorum for 
the lawful transaction of business. 

Very noble and patriotic were the closing words of President Lincoln's 



14 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

message to Congress when it assembled on tlie first Monday in December 
— words to be read through all time. 

" The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. 
The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise to the occa- 
sion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We 
must disinthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country. 

" Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and 
this administration wall be remembered in sj^ite of ourselves. No per- 
sonal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The 
fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor 
to the latest generation. ,We say we are for the Union, The world will 
not foi'get that we know how to save it. We — even we here — hold the 
power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave we 
assure freedom to \X\Qfree^ honorable alike in what we give and what we 
preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of 
earth. Other means may succeed ; this could not fail. The way is plain, 
peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, the world will forever 
applaud, and God must forever bless." 

One week after the delivery of this message came the battle of Freder- 
icksburg ("Drum-beat of the Nation," chap, xvi.), with its terrible slaugh- 
ter and defeat of the Union army. The idea was abroad that there had 
been intermeddling with General Burnside's plans by members of the 
Cabinet. A caucus was held by some of the Senators, who adopted 
a resolution of want of confidence in Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, 
and asked the President to remove him ; which was finally amended, 
not mentioning Mr. Seward's name, but asking for " a reconstruction of 
the Cabinet," whereupon Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, and Mr. Chase, 
Secretary of the Treasury, placed their resignations in the hands of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, who informed them that the public interest would not per- 
mit him to accept their resignations. It was an unwarranted attempt on 
tlie part of the Senators to dictate to the President their own line of 
policy ; but as a brave-hearted sailor amid the darkness, the storm, and 
tempest, with a firm hand upon the helm, guides the ship, so this clear- 
sighted, great-hearted man of the people, with faith in them, in himself, 
and in God, guided the nation in this dark hour of its history. 

With dissensions in the party which had elected President Lincoln, 
with the people of six States turning against him, his own State of Illinois 
among them, with Peace Democrats demanding " peace at any price," en- 
listments at an end, patriotic ardor gone, the ranks of the army thinned by 
battle and disease, more defeats than victories, a Congress opposed to the 



THE HOUR OF GLOOM. 15 

prosecution of the war elected, the loss of life at Fredericksburg appalling 
the country, the year went out in gloom to hearts that loved the old flag. 

In the peals of the church-bells tolling out the old year and ringing 
in the new there was confident expectation of final triumi^h to Jeffer- 
son Davis in Kichmond, gloom and foreboding in the Northern States to 
those sustaining Abraham Lincoln, requiems for the fallen at Shiloh, Ma- 
nassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and for the dying and the dead in the 
still undecided battle of Stone River ; but to four million of slaves never 
such celestial music — Freedom and Citizenship — and to the poor and lowly 
Df every land a brighter future, a nobler life. 

"Ring out a slowly dying cause, 

And ancient forms of party strife; 
Ring in the nobler modes of life 
With sweeter manners, freer laws. 

" Ring in the valiant man and free, 
The larger heart, the kindlier hand; 
Ring out the darkness of the land, 
Rina; in the Christ that is to be." 



NOTES TO CHAPTER I. 

(') Foote, "War of the Rebellion," p. 369. 

(-) Draper, "Civil War in America," vol. ii., p. 170. 

(3) Foote, " War of the Rebellion," p. 366. 

(•*) Idem, p. 381. 

(^) "Treason Trials at Indianapolis." 

C*) "Ritual of Knights of Golden Circle." 

(') H. B. Carrington to author. 



16 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



CHAPTER 11. 

OTHER COUNTRIES. 



" Xp^^I^^^I^ '^'il^ ^id ^^Sj" were the words of Jefferson Davis at Mont- 

-Li gomery, Alabama, the evening after his inauguration as Provisional 

President of the Confederaej, in February, 1862. Three days after the 




CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. 



firing on Fort Sumter, William L. Yancy, P. S. Eost, and Dudley A. Mann, 
Commissioners of the Confederate Government to England and France, 
started upon their missions. They arrived in London April 29th, and 



OTHER COUNTRIES. 



17 




LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 



lad an interview with Lord John Russell, Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
;wo days later. They informed him that they represented States which 
lad thrown off their connection with the United States, and had put in 
)peration a government of their own without shedding a drop of blood ; 
;hat it was to rid themselves of the oppressive tariff which the Korth had 
mposed upon the country ; that the object of the war on the part of 
Abraham Lincoln and those who supported him was not to abolish slav- 
ery, but to control slave labor by Congressional action. (') They set forth, 
n a long and elaborate document, the position of the Southern States 
ind what they had to offer England — cotton. 

Lord John Kussell said in rej)ly that he was pleased to meet them as 
gentlemen, but "in the present state of affairs he must decline to enter 
nto any official communication with them."Q 

President Lincoln had appointed Charles Francis Adams Minister to 
jrreat Britain, Lord John Russell knew that he was on his way across 
;he ocean, but the day preceding his arrival announced to the world that 
2 



18 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

England recognized the Confederacy as a belligerent power — a govern- 
ment which, under the usages of nations, had the right to make war. 
This unseemly haste on the part of Great Britain was regarded by the 
peoj)le of the Northern States as an intentional expression of sympathy 
and good-will to the seceded States, and of unfriendliness to the United 
States Government — as if it would be a pleasure to England to see the 
Republic of the Western World broken up. This recognition of the Con- 
federacy as a war-making power indicated that at some future time Eng- 
land might recognize the Confederacy as a Nation. It gave to the gov- 
ernment of Jefferson Davis the same hospitality given to that of Abraham 
Lincoln, It was regarded by the people of the United States as an inten- 
tional affront. England and France both announced that during the war 
they would maintain a strict neutrality, taking no part with either side. 
The London newspapers said that President Lincoln, when he established 
the blockade, immediately after the firing on Fort Sumter, recognized 
the Confederacy as a belligerent power ; but the President had proposed 
to close the ports instead of declaring a blockade, whereupon Lord Lyons 
informed him that England would not submit to such a measure, and 
there was, therefore, no other course for the President to pursue. 

In 1856 commissioners from nearly all the European nations had 
come to an agreement in Paris, and signed a declaration as to the course 
they would pursue in future wars. Up to that time, whenever a war 
broke out, private individuals were allowed to fit out armed vessels to 
destroy the commerce of the nation with w^hom their own nation was at 
war ; but they agreed that in future wars there should be no privateering. 
They also agreed that the flag of a nation which was not at war should 
protect all goods not contraband of war, and that such goods were not to 
be liable to capture even when under the enemy's flag ; also that a block- 
ade, to be respected, must be maintained by a force sufficient to prevent 
any passage of vessels to or from a blockaded port, Tliis declaration was 
signed by the representatives of France, England, Austria, Prussia, and 
Sardinia, all of whom agreed that it should not be binding on any gov- 
ernment unless accepted by such government. It was not signed by the 
United States, nor by Mexico. 

Lord John Russell, acting in concert with France, instructed Lord 
Lyons to endeavor to obtain the agreement of the United States and of 
the Confederate Government to the declaration. He was to communicate 
with Jefferson Davis through the consul at Charleston or New Orleans, 
who had received their exequaturs^ or official recognitions, from the United 
States. Such a procedure was regarded by the people of the United 



OTHER COUNTRIES. 



19 



States as unwarranted bj international courtesy — an unprecedented action 
prejudicial to the United States. 

The Confederate Government rejected the article which related to the 
fitting out of privateers, but accepted the others. The great fleet of ships 
owned by citizens of the United States might be captured or destroyed 
by privateers, and great damage done to the merchants and ship-owners 
of the l^orthern States ; whereas the merchants of Charleston, Wilming- 
ton, and Mobile had no ships, and would therefore lose nothing. 




HON. WILLIAM H. SEWAKD. 



Through the years preceding the war, in the ship-yards of Maine and 
Massachusetts there had been a clattering of axes and hammers — the con- 
structing of vessels which had outsailed the swiftest ships of Great Britain 
in ocean races from China to Liverpool. Americans were doing a large 
amount of the carrying trade of the world, which aroused the jealousy 
and envy of tlie English ship-owners and merchants, who were pleased 
to learn that the Confederate Congress had accepted the articles relating 
to goods not contraband of war, and they did not complain because the 
declaration in regard to privateering was not accepted, for their goods 
would not be molested ; whereas, on the other hand, goods manufactured 



20 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

in the United States would be liable to capture, while the merchant-ves- 
sels flying the Stars and Stripes would be swept from the ocean, which 
would put money into their purses. 

Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, offered to accept all the articles ; but 
as the Confederate Government had not consented to abandon privateer- 
ing, both England and France rejected the offer. Such was the attitude 
assumed by those countries at the beginning of the war. Mr. Seward 
expressed the sentiments of the people of the United States when he 
wrote these words : 

" It is manifest in the tones of the speakers as well as in popular dis- 
cussion that neither the responsible ministers, nor the House of Commons, 
nor the active portion of the people of Great Britain sympathize with this 
Government, or hope, or even wish for its success in suppressing the in- 
surrection ; and that, on the contrary, the whole British nation, speaking 
practically, desire and expect the dismemberment of the Republic." 

The action of England and France was so expressive of sympathy that 
Jefferson Davis appointed John M. Mason, of Yirginia, and John Slidell, 
of Louisiana, as ministers to those countries. They went to "Wilmington, 
North Carolina,(^) but there were so many United States war-ships keeping 
watch at that port for vessels running the blockade they did not dare to 
to sail, but made a long and tiresome journey to Matamoras in Mexico, 
at the mouth of the Rio Grande, where they found the steamship Gordon, 
and paid the captain ten thousand dollars in gold to take them from that 
port to Havana — a very large price for so short a voyage. At Havana 
they took passage on the steamer Trent^ carrying the British mail, for 
St. Thomas, intending to take another vessel at that port for England. 
Commodore Charles H. Wilkes, of the United States war-ship San Jacinto, 
was waiting for the Trent in the Bahama Channel. He stopped that ves- 
sel, seized Messrs. Mason and Slidell, with their secretaries. The question 
arose in his mind whether he had the right to do so. There was no 
doubt that he had a right to capture written despatches. 

"I considered them," said Commodore Wilkes, "as the embodiment of 
despatches. . . .(') The cargo was also liable, as all the shippers were know- 
ing to the embarkation of these live despatches, and their traitorous mo- 
tives and actions to the Union of the United States." He did not, how- 
ever, seize the vessel, as under the law of nations he had a right to do, if 
his theory of action was right and proper, because he could not spare men 
from the San Jacinto to man her, and because there were many passen- 
gers on board who would have been greatly disturbed by such action. 
The San Jacinto sailed into Boston harbor, and the captured Confed- 



OTHER COUNTRIES. 



21 



erates were placed for safe-keeping in Fort Warren, on an island, the 
place where the song of " John Brown " was first sung, and where, it is 
quite likely, Mason and Slidell heard it as they sat in the evening in the 
comfortable quarters provided for them. During the summer the Boston 
Light Infantry had been quartered there. Some of the soldiers were 
accustomed to hold prayer- meetings in the evening when off duty. This 
is one of their sono-s : 



gjpiil 




"Say, brothers, will you meet us, 

Say, brothers, will you meet us, 

Say, brothers, will you meet us 

On Canaan's happy shore?" 

rhe melody had been sung in many camp-meetings long before the Avar 
began. Q One of the soldiers bore the name of John Brown. He was 
from Scotland, always good-natured. His messmates made fun of him 
for being a little behindhand at times. They asked, "Where's John 
Brown?" Then came the answer: "Oh, he's dead. They hung him 
down in Old Virginia." There was a laugh, and then one said, "His body 
is mouldering in the o-rave." All of which John Brown from Scotland 
took in good jDart. The jolly members of the company improvised other 
words. One member — James E. Greenleaf — played the organ in church 
on Sunday when at home in Charlestown. His friend, C. S. Hall, came to 
see him, and together they arranged some verses which were printed by 
Mr. Hall, the music arranged by Mr. Marsh. In a few days all the boys 
on the street, working-men, teamsters, clerks were singing it. Regiments 
departing for Washington took it up, and a few weeks later the entire 
army was singing the apotheosis of the man who had been hung in Vir- 
ginia, and whom the world had regarded as either a lunatic or a fanatic, 
but who precipitated the mighty conflict. 

There was great rejoicing in Boston when the San Jacinto sailed into 
the harbor. A meeting was held in Faneuil Hall, and resolutions of thanks 
to Commodore Wilkes adopted. Congress approved his action. The Sec- 
retary of the Navy thanked him. Far different the state of affairs in Eng- 
land when it was learned, on ISTovember 2Tth, that a United States war- 



22 



MARCHING TO VICTOEY. 




JOHN M. MASON. 



ship had stopped a British merchant steamer and seized the Confederate 
ministers. It was looked upon as an affront to Great Britain so flagrant 
that if Mason and Slidell were not given up on demand and a fitting apol- 
ogy tendered, it was the duty of England to instantly declare war against 
the United States. There was bustle and prejjaration at Portsmouth, where 
the great fl.eet of war-vessels were lying, shipments of powder, shot, and 
shell, mustering of crews, the returning, in hot haste, of all absent officers ; 
eight thousand soldiers were ordered to Canada to be ready to strike a quick 
blow to avenge the insult. The heaviest-armed ships of the navy sailed, 
or prepared to sail, for Halifax to be ready to send the whole of the insig- 
nificant vessels of the United States Navy, which had been fitted up to 
blockade the Southern ports, to the bottom of the sea ; to bombard Bos- 



OTHER COUNTRIES. 



23 



i;oii, New York, and Philadelphia ; capture Fortress Monroe, and open all 
:he ports of the Confederacy once more to commerce ; sail np the Poto- 
nac and send shot and shell through the White House ; batter down the 
unfinished marble walls of the Capitol. We are to remember that in 1861 
;he navy of England was exceedingly powerful, while that of the United 
States was very weak, with scarcely half a dozen first-class frigates. 

Lord Palmerston, Lord John Kussell, the members of Parliament, the 
lewspapers, merchants, and manufacturers forgot that in years gone by 




JOHN SLIDELL. 



tiundreds of American vessels had been stopped on the ocean by the 
frigates of England, and more than six thousand American citizens and 
nearly as many more British citizens had been seized and impressed into 



24 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

the navy of England ; that some of them had been unmercifullj flogged 
and maltreated for not obeying every order or satisfying every whim of 
the officers on the quarter-deck. They foi'got that Lord Castlereagh had 
admitted there had been thirty-five hundred violent and unjust seizures of 
American citizens ; that the United States declared war against England 
in 1812 to vindicate the rights of American sailors ; that though England 
had discontinued the practice, she had persistently refused to make a 
renunciation of the right to stop American vessels or take sailors from 
them. Mr. Mason and Mr. Slidell were not citizens of Great Britain, but, 
up to the secession of the Southern States, they had been citizens of the 
United States. Lord John Russell could put in no claim that England 
was bound, on the score of the nationality of Messrs. Mason and Slidell, to 
demand their release. The stopping of the Treat and their seizure con- 
stituted the insult. 

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were at Windsor Castle, on the 
banks of the Thames, out from London, where from the round tower one 
may look down uj)on the green meadows of Runnymede, where King John 
was compelled to sign the Magna Charta. A great herd of deer roam 
the pastures and moorlands, and pheasants build their nests in the giant 
oaks of the forest where William Rufus once hunted. To this spot, with 
its historic memories, came a messenger on Saturday evening, the last day 
of November, with the document which Lord John Russell had written 
to be sent across the Atlantic to Lord Lyons, in Washington. 

The Queen and Prince Albert did not relish the tone of it. They had 
a liking for the people of the Northern States, and were grateful for the 
cordial and hearty reception which had been given everywhere in the 
North to the Prince of Wales a few months before ; and they also remem- 
bered that he was treated with discourtesy at Richmond so marked that 
he would go no farther south. Prince Albert, who was ever a good friend 
to the United States,Q saw that Lord John Russell had so worded it that 
a proud-spirited people would be likely to resent the imperious demand. 
He was not well, and jxxssed a restless night. He was thinking of the 
momentous results that might come from the letter which was to be sent 
across the Atlantic — possibly a terrible war between the United States 
and Great Britain. He could eat no breakfast. His hand was weak and 
trembling when he took up his pen. He did not know that he was about 
to do his last writing, that the weakness which had come over him was 
the beginning: of the end of life. He wrote what he thought ought to be 
sent to the United States — a despatch conciliatory rather than imperious 
— that the Queen hoped Commodore Wilkes had acted on his own autlior- 



OTHER COUNTRIES. 



25 




PRINCE ALBERT. 



ty and not under orders ; that lier Majesty trusted the United States would 
pontaneously offer such redress as would satisfy tlie country. Lord Palm- 
rston and Lord John Russell accepted what the Prince had written. 

Far different in all probability would have been the outcome of affairs 
ad the despatch as first written by Lord John Russell been approved 
y Prince Albert and the Queen. Prince Albert did not know, nor did 
jord Palmerston or any member of the English ministry, what the Rus- 
ian ambassador in London was writing to Count Gortschakoff, the Prime- 
linister of Russia : that England was preparing for war with the United 
itates. When the despatch was received at St. Petersburg there was 
ctivity in the Russian navy, and two fleets sailed across the Atlantic with 
Baled orders, not to be broken except in certain events. Month after 
lonth a Russian fleet lay in the harbor of New York, and another in the 
arbor of San Francisco. It probably never will be known just what the 



26 MARCHING TO VICTOEY. 

orders contained, or what were the intentions of the Emperor of Russia ; 
but there is much reason to believe that Russia would have been the 
allj(') of the United States and against England and France in case of 
war with those countries. 

Yerj fortunate for the whole human race that the man who, when 
young, split rails and built a fence to obtain a pair of jean trousers, who 
was so upright in all things that everybody called him " honest," was now, 
under a kind Providence, guiding the affairs of the United States in its 
struggle for national existence, and who saw that the right thing to do 
was to comply with the demand of England, for by so doing that coun- 
try would be forever debarred from again stopping a vessel upon the sea 
and seizing a sailor ; by complying with the demand, war, with all its ter- 
rible consequences, would not only be averted, but the right, for which the 
United States had fought in 1812, would become a great principle of inter- 
national law. 

Mr. Mason and Mr. Slidell and their secretaries were given up, and 
Avere taken to England on the British war-ship Rinaldo. It was very 
mortifying to the United States to give them up after Congress had 
thanked Commodore Wilkes ; but Mr. Seward surrendered them gracefully 
and acceptably to England, on the ground that Commodore Wilkes did 
not do as lie ought to have done — seize the Trent, and have his action 
adjusted in a prize court, in accordance with international law, which 
was not the highest ground for him to take ; but as the demand of Eng- 
land had been complied with, and the act of Commodore Wilkes dis- 
avowed, that country could have no further reason for complaint. But 
the affair made nearly all the members of Parliament, all but one or two 
of the Cabinet ministers, a great majority of the merchants, manufact- 
urers, ship-owners, and nearly all the newspapers active partisans of the 
Confederate States. 

The last week in January, 1862, the Confederate ministers arrived in 
London. Lord John Russell received Mr. Mason very courteously as a pri- 
vate gentleman,(*) but he was not quite ready to recognize him as an offi- 
cial representative of the Confederate Government. At that date there 
was not much distress in Lancashire for want of cotton, for there had been 
a supply sufficient to keep a large portion of the spindles whirling. Mr, 
Mason was much gratified to find that the sympathies of nearly all with 
whom he came in contact were for the success of the Confederacy. 

This from a letter to Mr. Benjamin, Confederate Secretary of State : 

"I am in full and frequent communication with many able and in- 
fluential members of the House of Commons, who confer with me with 



OTHER COUNTRIES. 



27 




EMPEROR NAPOLEON III. 



great freedom and candor, and who are prepared to move the question (of 
recognition) whenever it may be found expedient The educated and en- 
lightened classes are in full sympathy with us, and are becoming impatient 
at the supineness of the Government.''^ 

Mr. Mason did not visit the humble homes of the men and women of 
Lancashire to find out what they thought of a government which was en- 
deavoring to establish itself on unrequited labor. 

Mr. Slidell reached Paris in Februar}^, and wrote to Mr. Benjamin 
that he was satisfied France was prepared to declare the blockade ineffi- 
cient and not binding on the neutral powers. lie had an interview with 
the Emperor Louis Napoleon at Vichy. " His sympathies," wrote Mr. Sli- 
dell, " had always bjeen with the South, whose people were struggling for 



28 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

the principle of self-government. He considered the re-establishment of 
the Union impossible, and final separation a mere question of time. TJie 
difficulty was to find a way to give effect to his sympatliies. He desired 
to preserve the most friendly relations with England, and in so grave a 
matter he was not willing to act without her co.-operation. He had several 
times intimated his wish for action, but England wished him to draw the 
chestnuts from the fire for her own comfort. , . . He had committed a great 
error, which he now regretted. France should never have respected the 
blockade. The European powers should never have respected it last 
summer, when our ports were in our possession and our armies menacing 
Washington."('") 

The Emperor of France was watching every movement of the great 
struggle. The dream of empire had come to liim, and he was at that mo- 
ment turning over in his mind a scheme and course of action which he 
thought would send his name down the ages ; it was to overthrow the 
Government of Mexico, establish an empire, and break up the republican 
form of government in America, which by its influence was threatening 
the stability of the monarchies of Europe. 

How the scheme came about, how it began, the elevation of Maximil- 
ian as Emperor of Mexico, his tragic end, the relations of Louis Napoleon 
to the Confederacy, the overturning of all his plans by the men beneath 
the Stars and Stripes, will ever be a dramatic episode in tlie history of our 
country. 

The establishment of the United States as a free and independent na- 
tion, the adoption of the Constitution in 1787, set the whole world think- 
ing upon the problem of government. As the years went by, Mexico and 
all the South American countries except Brazil became republics. Dur- 
ing the administration of President Monroe the United States announced 
to the world that the countries in the Western Hemisphere must be al- 
lowed to choose their own form of government without interference from 
European nations. Mexico became a republic. Just before the seces- 
sion of the Southern States there was no end of trouble in that country, 
revolution succeeding revolution, and civil war. There were two politi- 
cal parties, the " Church," or " Clerical," party, with the bishops, padres, 
priests, and many of the wealthy Mexicans at its head, and the " Liberal," 
or " People's," party. The Clerical party had vast wealth, while the Lib- 
erals were poor. From the time of Cortez those who owned large pos- 
sessions at death ha^ bequeathed their property to the Church, which held 
under mortmain — the dead hand — lands which were said to be worth three 
hundred million dollars, and which yielded twenty million dollars per an- 



OTHER COUNTRIES. 29 

mm, or donble the revenues of the nation. The Chnrcli owned two thou- 
sand houses which were the homes of the ecclesiastics, who paid no taxes ; 
he whole property of the Church being exempt from taxation, made the 
)urdens upon the people very heavy. 

In 1857 the Clericals annulled the Constitution, electing General 
juloaga President, while the Liberals elected Benito Juarez — a man of 
jreat force of character, and who had the good of his country ever in 
^iew. Zuloaga was soon succeeded by Miraraon, of the Clerical party, 
v'ho was wholly destitute of moral principle, who shot in cold blood men 
)olitically opposed to him, and appropriated their property. He had no 
egard for law, but was a law to himself. In 1860 he seized six hun- 
Ired and sixty thousand dollars, which had been set aside to pay inter- 
ist on bonds held in England. He issued bonds to the amount of many 
nillion dollars to some French bankers, receiving for them about seven 
lundred thousand dollars.(") Paper was cheap, and the printing cost but 
, trifle. But he was defeated in battle, and obliged to flee the country. 
Che Liberals, having obtained control of the Government, passed a law 
ecovering to the State a very large portion of the lands held by the 
!]hurch. Some of the bishops who had been very obnoxious were ordered 
o leave the country, also the Papal nuncio, together with General Al- 
nonte, who had commanded the Clerical troops. Up to this time, all 
narriages must be authorized by the priests, but a law was passed making 
narriage by civil law legal. The reform brought about in 1859-60 was 
he beginning of a new national life in Mexico. The people were poor ; 
he Clerical party had plundered them, and there was no money in the 
reasnry to carry on the Government nor to pay the interest on bonds. 
)n July 17, 1861, the day on which the army of the United States began 
ts march to fight the first battle at Bull Run, the Mexican Congress 
)assed a law suspending the payment of interest on the bonds for two 
'^ears, whereupon the ministers of England, France, and Spain informed 
^resident Juarez that unless the law was annulled in twenty-four hours 
hey should haul down their flags and suspend all intercourse. 

Men who have once exercised and enjoyed great power do not like to 
urrender it. Tlie defeated Clericals had rioted in wealth drawn from the 
(States of the Church ; they had wielded political power for a long peri- 
)d ; to lose their riches, become poor, and be driven from ofiice all at the 
ame time made them very bitter. They determined to recover what they 
lad lost. Archbishop Bastida, ex-President Miramon, and the Papal nun- 
do Clementi all sailed for Europe, to counsel with Cardinal Antonelli, the 
Prime-minister of the Pope, who wielded great influence among the Cath- 



30 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

olic nations of Europe. The French banker Jecker, who had loaned the 
seven hundred thousand dollars to Miramon, and who had received many 
millions of bonds, sailed for Paris, accompanied 'by General Almonte. Arch- 
bishop, padre, nuncio, banker, ex-President, all were on their way across 
the Atlantic to carry out a scheme which had been planned to regain their 
power and recover their property. Mexico was a republic. They hated 
government by the people, and determined to bring about its overthrow. 
The times were propitious. The English creditors were besieging the Brit- 
ish Government to interfere in their behalf. Spain and France would join 
with England to establish a stable government. War had begun in the 
United States, and the outlook was for the permanent breaking up of the 
great Republic of the West, so nothing need be feared from that quarter. 
A convention, the representatives of the three European powers, was held 
in London in October, and it was agreed that each country should send a 
fleet and troops to Vera Cruz, to hold that port and collect the custom 
dues. 

The Spanish fleet and troops were the first to reach Mexico, in Decem- 
ber, 1861, and were soon joined by troops from France and a fleet from 
England. But Archbishop Bastida, Miramon, and Jecker were looking for 
something more than the establishment of a custom-house at Yera Cruz. 
There was one man who could aid them in carrying out their plans — Louis 
Napoleon, Emperor of France. From obscurity he had suddenly attained 
the throne. People said that he was " a man of destiny," who was turn- 
ing over great plans to build up the power of France and win fame for 
himself. 

It probably never can be known just what influences were brought 
to bear upon the Emperor, but those best acquainted with affairs at the 
Tuileries said that Banker Jecker distributed several millions of the bonds 
which he had received from Miramon to those holding confidential rela- 
tions with Louis Napoleon, especially to the Duke de Morny, his brother, 
and to members of the ministry. It was also rumored that the Empress 
Eugenie received personal letters from Cardinal Antonelli and Pope Pio 
Nono which set forth the great service, honor, and glory that would 
come to the Church and to herself, if by any means she could influence a 
course of action by the Emperor which would bring about a restoration to 
the Church of the estates seized by the Mexican Government. Be this 
as it may, on February 14, 1S62, Mr. Charles Francis Adams, at London, 
informed Secretary Seward that Louis Napoleon intended to establish a 
monarchy in Mexico, with Maximilian, brother of the Emperor of Aus- 
tria, and Carlotta, daughter of the King of Belgium, upon the throne. 



OTHER COUNTRIES. 31 

^Vlien Great Britain and Spain learned of the intentions of France, they 
withdrew their troops, while the French, attempting to march to the 
Uity of Mexico, were confronted by the Mexicans at Pueblo, May 5, and 
iefeated. It was unwelcome news to Louis Napoleon, but the honor of 
B'rance was now involved, and preparations were made to send a great 
irmy to Mexico to carry out his design. 

'News of the disaster to the Army of the Potomac, under General 
VIcClellan, in front of Richmond, had reached Paris. The prospects of 
;he restoration of the Union were not very bright, and the Emperor 
same to the conclusion that the United States never would be in position 
;o interfere to prevent the carrying out of his plans. On July 3d he 
vrote his instructions to General Fleury, who was in command of the 
French troops in Mexico : " It is for our interest that the republic of the 
[Jnited States may be powerful and prosperous, but by no means that 
;he should take all the Gulf of Mexico, and hence command the West 
[ndies as well as South America, and be the sole dispenser of the products 
)f the New World." The real meaning was that the United States, if 
iuccessful in restoring the Union, would be so strong that he could not 
!arry out his plans ; therefore he desired to see its power destroyed. 

From an interview, October 28, 1862, between Mr. Slidell, Confederate 
ninister to France, and Louis Napoleon, we learn the Emperor's views in 
•elation to the Confederacy. 

"I have no scruple," said the Emperor, "in declaring that my sympa- 
;hies are entirely with the South, and my only desire is to know how to 
jive them effect.('°) . . . All attempts to reconstruct the Union are hope- 
ess; final separation is an accomplished fact, and it is the duty of the 
jreat powers so to treat it ; recognition, or any other course that might be 
;alculated to bring about a peace, should be adopted." 

The Emperor asked Mr. Slidell why the Confederate Government had 
10 navy, and Mr. Slidell replied, " We have built two vessels in England, 
ind are building two others — powerful iron -clad steamers. The great 
lifficulty was not to build, but to man and equip and arm them under the 
aws of neutrality. If the Emperor would only give some kind of verbal 
Lssurance that his police would not observe too closely when we wished to 
3ut on board guns and men, we would gladly avail ourselves of it." 

" Why could yoic not have them huilt as for the Italian Government f 
I do not think it would he difficult. I loill consult the Minister of Ma- 
rine ahout it.^'' 

So the Emperor of France took part personally in the struggle between 
he North and the South, suggesting a course of action which Mr. Slidell 



32 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

and the agents of France at once entered upon : the construction of ves- 
sels in that country for the Confederate navy, 

A great fleet of steamships and war-vessels sailed from the ports of 
France in January, 1863, transporting forty-fiVe thousand troops to Yera 
Cruz, from whence they marched to the City of Mexico without serious 
opposition, for President Juarez could not hope to defeat so large a force. 

A form of an election was held by the French commander, Marshal 
Bazaine. The Clericals voted that Maximilian be invited to become 
Emperor of Mexico, and a deputation departed for Trieste, in Austria, 
where Maximilian and Carlotta were living in the beautiful palace of 
Mirama, informing them of the decision of the Mexicans. 

In June, 1861, an agent of the Confederacy was in England to obtain 
ships which would destroy the ships owned by the merchants of the 
United States. He found some builders at Liverpool who were ready to 
construct a vessel, and who had the draft of a British war-ship. While 
the vessel was building, it bore the name of Oreto. Mr. Charles Francis 
Adams informed the British Government that it was being built for the 
Confederates. Under the loose neutrality which England and France 
saw fit to pursue, the Oveto was built and equipped, but not armed, and 
in March, 1862, was ready to sail from Liverpool to begin her work of 
burning ships owned by the merchants of IS^ew York, Boston, and other 
Northern cities.('') 

In August, at Green Cay, a small, barren island in the Bahama group 
of islands, the Prince Alfred^ a British merchant-vessel, transferred can- 
non and ammunition to the Oreto, and the Confederate captain, MafRt, 
who took the place of the English captain, hoisted the Confederate flag, 
and changed the name of the vessel to Florida. Captain Maffit needed 
more men, and succeeded in getting in past the United States vessels block- 
ading the bay of Mobile, and out again, and lighting up the ocean by set- 
ting on fire the vessels which he captured. 

On May 15, 1862, a ship was launched at Birkenhead, opposite Liver- 
pool, by the ship-builders Messrs. Laird, which was called " 290," it being 
the two hundred and ninetieth vessel constructed by them. One of the 
members of the firm was a member of Parliament. When the vessel glided 
into the water, a lady gave the Spanish name Enrica to the vessel. The 
United States consul at Liverpool, and Mr. Adams, at London, laid before 
Lord John Eussell a great amount of evidence that the vessel was to be 
a Confederate war-ship, but the Government took no measures to prevent 
its completion. Under the neutrality laws, a vessel might be built for the 
Confederates, but there was a law against enlisting men to serve against 



OTHER COUNTRIES. 33 

the United States, with whom England was at peace. Mr. Adams informed 
Lord John Russell that English sailors were being secured to man the Eii- 
rica, and called upon the British Government to prevent her departure. 
The evidence was so strong that Lord John Russell saw he must do some- 
thing, or the United States would have good ground for complaint. He 
did not, however, hurry in the matter, but delayed several days. Captain 
Bulloch, who had charge of the Ii'?i?nca, made all haste to get to sea. " I 
received," he says, "information from a private but most reliable source 
that it would not be safe to leave the ship in Liverj)ool another forty-eight 
hours." 

It was a select party of ladies and gentlemen which gathered by invi- 
tation on the deck of the Enrica for a trial trip of the vessel down Liv- 
erpool harbor. It is quite probable that not many on board knew that 
she never would again drop anchor in the Mersey. The vessel was fol- 
lowed by the tug-boat Hercules with a strange company on board : from 
eighty to one hundred men and women ; the men mostly English sailors, 
with Frenchmen, Italians, and dark - featured Malayans — some of them 
boys — all gathered from the slums of Liverpool; the women hard-feat- 
ared, from whose cheeks beauty had long since faded, from whose brows 
the light of heaven had forever departed. Of the crew Captain Semmes, 
who commanded the Alabama, has this to say: "These boys had been 
taken from the slums and haunts of vice about Liverpool, and were 
as great a set of scamps as any disciplinarian could desire to lick into 
3hape."('^) While sherry and champagne were quaffed on board the En- 
nca, there was much drinking of rum on board the Ilercxiles. The En- 
yica ran into the calm waters of Moelfa Bay. The steward of the Enrica 
had his stewpans steaming and smoking with soup to feed the hungry 
srowd. Captain Bulloch, agent of the Confederate Navy, called the boozy 
sailors around him, asked them if they would like to ship for a cruise to 
the West Indies, provided they could have a month's pay in advance ; 
md all but two or three agreed to go. He gave them and the women 
each a parting glass of grog, and the Hercules, with the ladies and gen- 
tlemen, and the women from the dens and alleys, steamed back to Liv- 
erpool, while the Enrica sailed away, shaping her course to the Azores, 
where, a few days later, she dropped anchor alongside the bark Agrip- 
piana, from which cannon, shot, shell, powder, muskets, pistols, and swords 
were transferred to the Enrica. The Confederate steamer Bahama came 
with a lot more scapegraces who had been gathered from the lowest sailors' 
dens of a great commercial city. 

On a Sunday morning the two vessels steamed out from the harbor of 
3 



34 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

the little town of Angra, on the Island of Terceira, till more than three 
miles from land. Standing upon the quarter-deck of the Enrica, Captain 
Raphael Semraes, in a Confederate uniform, with his officers around him, 
read the commission which Jefferson Davis had given him, appointing him 
captain in the Confederate Navy, and his order from Mr. Mallor}', Secre- 
tary of the Navy. The crew uncovered their heads. The English flag 
was flying above them, but at a signal it came down and a ball of bunt- 
ing at the mast-head fluttered out into the Confederate flag. The ship 
was no longer the Enrica^ but the Alabama — built in England by Eng- 
lish ship -builders, English workmen, mounted with English cannon, sup- 
plied with shot and shell and powder from English manufacturers, every 
anchor, cable, mast, halyard, and belaying-pin supplied by England, manned 
by an English crew in part, all cunningly transferred to the Confederacy, 
to begin a work of destruction which would be beneficial to English ship- 
builders, masters, merchants, but disastrous to the people of the United 
States ; which would bring poverty to homes where there had been plen- 
ty ; which would drive the commerce of the United States for a third or 
half a century from the sea and build up that of Great Britain, and arouse 
an angry feeling towards that country which would not be allayed even 
by the acknowledgment on the part of Great Britain of the accountability 
of that Government, and the payment of fifteen million dollars as damages 
— a destruction which would in no way be of benefit to the Confederacy. 

During the summer months schools of whales may be seen around the 
Azores. Captain Semmes was sure that he would soon find a large fleet 
of whaling- vessels there ; nor was he disappointed. On the afternoon of 
September 4th, a sailor in the main-top of the Alabama gave the cry of 
" Sail, ho !" and, in a short time, this swift-sailing vessel, new, neat, trim, 
and bright from an English ship-yard, was alongside the American ship 
Ocmidgee, the crew of which had captured a whale, and were cutting out 
the blubber. The Alabama came up with the English flag flying, but 
Captain Semmes, when alongside, hauled it down, and ran up the Confed- 
erate flag. In the morning the torch was applied, and a pillar of smoke 
rose heavenward from the burning oil. He ran in towards the Island of 
Flores, and landed the captured crew without money or means to sustain 
them. 

While the prisoners were being sent ashore, " Sail, ho !" came from the 
mast-head. Up went the English colors over the Alabama, and the ship 
Starlight of Boston fell into the hands of Captain Semmes, with its crew 
of seven men. 

Captain Semmes had previously commanded the Sumter, a Confeder- 



OTHER COUNTRIES. 35 

ate cruiser, and had already burned many ships. The Sumter had reached 
Cadiz, and tlie paymaster of the vessel went to Tangier, in Africa, to obtain 
some supplies that were needed, when he was arrested by the authorities, 
at the request of the United States consul, under a treaty between the 
United States and Morocco, and was harshly treated, having been put in 
irons. Captain Serames determined to have his revenge, and the captain 
and crew of the Starlight soon found themselves in irons on board the 
Alabama. Although there were several women on board the vessel who 
had taken passage to Boston, their discomfort, disappointment, and trouble 
did not deter him from carrying out his work of destruction. ]^or did 
the putting of the seven men in irons satisfy his desire for revenge for 
the indignity to the paymaster of the Sumter. These his words : 

" I pursued this practice, painful as it was, for the next seven or eight 
captures, putting the masters, mates of ships, as well as the crews, in 
irons."(") 

For the next few days the ocean around the Azores was lighted with 
burning vessels, set on fii-e by Captain Semmes — officers and crew enrich- 
ing themselves with whatever they could find upon the unresisting and 
helpless whaling-vessels, manned by the peaceful toilers of the seas. 



NOTES TO CHAPTER II. 

( ') Mason to Benjamin, Confederate State Papers. 

( -) Russell to Lyons, diplomatic correspondence. 

( ^) Mason to Benjamin, unpublished Confederate State Papers. (Nearly all histories 

speak of tiieir having sailed from Wilmington or Charleston.) 
( ") Wilkes's report to the Secretary of the Navy. 
( ') George Kimball, member of regiment, to author. 
( ^) Martin, "Life of the Prince Consort," vol. v., p. 423. 
( ') "Life of Thurlow Weed," vol. ii., p. 347. 
( ') Mason to Benjamin, unpublished Confederate State Papers, 
( «) Idem. 

(10) Slidell to Benjamin, July 25, 1863. 

(") Corwin to Seward, diplomatic correspondence, June 29, 1861. 
('-) Slidell to Benjamin, October 28, 1862. 
('^) Bulloch, "Confederate Secret Service," p. 238. 
('*) Semmes, "Memoirs of Service Afloat," p. 454. 
('5) Idem, p. 429. 



36 • MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



CHAPTER III. 

IX THE SOUTH-WEST. 

'"T^HE year 1863 opened with victory for the Army of the Cumberland 
-*- at Stone River, but with disaster to tlie Union cause at Galveston, 
in Texas, held by three companies of the Forty -second Massachusetts 
regiment, commanded by Colonel Burrell. In the harbor was a naval 
force — ^the Harriet Lane, Oivasco, Westfield^ and Clifton. The two last 
were old ferry-boats, fitted up for blockaders, carrying heavy guns. Cap- 
tain Renshaw commanded the fleet. He took possession of the city be- 
fore the arrival of the troops, and assured Colonel Burrell that the Con- 
federates would not dare to make an attack. 

General Magruder was in comniand of the Confederates in Texas. He 
fitted up two steamers — the Bayou City and the Neptune — filling them 
with bales of cotton, with embrasures for his cannon. He had one heavy 
gun — a 68-pounder — but his other cannon were field-pieces. One hundred 
and fifty sharp-shooters were placed on each vessel, to pick ofE the gun- 
ners of the Union fleet. 

It was three o'clock in the morning ISTew-year's-day when the Union 
pickets discovered between four and five thousand Confederate troops ad- 
vancing to attack the town held by the handful of men who had built a 
barricade of cotton-bales on a wharf. The Union vessels — Sachem, a small 
steamer, Corypheiis, a yacht, and the Owasco — opened fire, which with the 
musketry kept the Confederates at bay. Twice they attempted to charge, 
but were repulsed, with many killed and wounded. 

At daylight the two Confederate steamers came down the river, and 
the Harriet Lane steamed up the channel to meet them, firing with her 
bow gnn, which burst at the third discharge, steering straight for the 
Bayou City, striking her wheel-house, pouring in a broadside, being struck 
in turn by the Neptune, which did little injury to the Harriet Lane, but 
which opened her own seams so wide that the water rushed in, and a few 
moments later she went to the bottom. The Bayou City ran alongside 
the Union vessel, and the sliarj)-shooters began to pick off the men at the 



IN THE SOUTH-WEST. 39 

guns, mortally wounding Lieutenant Lea. They leaped on board, but were 
met by Captain Wainwrigbt, who fought till jDierced with seven wounds. 
The acting-master who succeeded to the command needlessly surrendered 
the ship. The Westfield., with Commodore Renshaw on board, was three 
miles away, and in attempting to reach the La7ie ran aground. The Clifton 
went to her assistance. The Owasco started to assist the Harriet Lane, 
but after her surrender could not open fire without killing or wounding 
those who had surrendered. The Confederates ran ujd a flag of truce, 
sent word to Renshaw announcing their capture of the Harriet Lane, and 
saying that two-thirds of her crew had been killed or wounded, whereas 
the number was less than a dozen. They offered Renshaw the privilege 
of taking one of the vessels out of the harbor with the crews of all. 

While this was going on, a flag of truce was hoisted on shore under 
which the Confederates came down with the Harriet Lane and Neptune, 
and took position to pour a tire upon the Union troops, which compelled 
their surrender. Tlie terms proposed to Commodore Renshaw were re- 
fused by him, but the Westfield could not be removed, and had to be de- 
stroyed. A train was laid, but some one lighted it too soon, and the 
explosion of the magazine came before the commodore could leave the 
ship. He was killed, together with several sailors. The other vessels 
made their way out of the harbor and sailed for South-west Pass, leaving 
Galveston without any vessel to continue the blockade. The affair was a 
series of mishaps. General Magruder issued a proclamation announcing 
that the blockade was raised ; but before the week ended Commodore Bell 
was off the harbor with the BrooMyn and Hatteras and several other ves- 
sels, again closing the port. 

Commodore Bell saw a vessel in the distance, and sent the Llatteras, 
commanded by Captain Blake, to tind out what ship was sailing away 
towards the south, as if trying to escape. It was seven o'clock in the 
evening when the Hatteras came uj) with the stranger. The last ray of 
twilight had faded from the western sky, and it was quite dark. 

" What steamer is that ?" was the hail from the Hatteras. 

" Her Britannic Majesty's ship Vixe?i," the reply. 

" I will send a boat on board," the response from the Hatteras. 

The boat was lowered. " This is the Confederate steamer Alabama,^'' 
came through the darkness ; and at the same moment the thunder of a 
broadside, the crash and explosion of shells in the Hatteras, which sent 
back a feeble reply, and which in thirteen minutes was at the bottom of 
the sea. When Blake saw that his vessel was going down, he fired a lee 
gun as a signal that he had surrendered, and the Alabamans boats were 



40 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



lowered, and the crew transferred to that vessel. The Hatteras was no 
match for the AlafM7na, which steamed rapidly away, Captain Semmes, 
well knowing that the Broohlyn would ere long be down upon him. 
lie landed his prisoners at Port Royal, Jamaica, and received the congrat- 
ulations of the officers of several English war-ships over his exploit.Q 

During the last days of December, 1862, the army under General 
Grant, which had been moving southward along the railroad to gain the 
rear of Vicksburg, had been compelled to turn back, not from defeat in 
battle, but because the Confederates had succeeded in capturing and de- 
stroying his supplies at Holly Springs, in Mississippi. General Sherman 
had been repulsed at Chickasaw Bluifs, on the Yazoo, a short distance 
above Vicksburg, and on January 2, 1863, was at Milliken's Bend, on the 
Mississippi. General McClernand, having been appointed by President 
Lincoln to fit out an expedition against Vicksburg, arrived and assumed 
command. General Sherman, although repulsed in his movement, had 
already planned another. 

Fifty miles np the Arkansas River the Confederates had constructed 

Fort Hindman, located at a bend 
of the stream, to prevent the pas- 
sage of the Union gunboats. 
Three heavy cannon had been 
placed in position, together with 
fourteen pieces of field artillery. 
General Churchill, with five thou- 
sand troops, held the position. 
General Sherman thought that it 
would not be a diflicult matter to 
capture the fort, and so on Janu- 
ary 5th seven gunboats and the 
ram Monarch steamed up the 
Mississippi, accompanied by a 
great fleet of river steamers crowded with troops, and entered the Arkan- 
sas River. 

The troops were landed on the northern bank, three miles below the 
fort ; two corps — one under General Sherman, and the other commanded 
by General Morgan. A brigade commanded by General Lindsey landed 
on the south bank, and marched through the woods uj) to the bend of 
the river opposite the fort, to prevent the Confederates from crossing at 
that point and escaping. 

A line of breastworks extended from the fort westward to a bayou, 




FORT HINDMAN AT ARKANSAS POST. 



IN THE SOUTH-WEST. 43 

where most of the Confederates were in position, to prevent the Union 
troops from attacking from the rear. Just at sunset the gunboats steamed 
up towards the fort, and sent their shells into it for a few minutes ; but 
the troops liad not reached the position assigned to them, and were not 
ready for a battle, whereupon the gunboats ceased firing, floated back 
with the current, and waited till morning. Not till past noon the next day 
(January 10th) were the troops in position, and then, at a signal from the 
shore, the solid shot ploughed up the embankments, and shells exploded 
among the Confederate gunners, quickly silencing the fire of the fort, 
dismounting the guns, and splintering the carriages. 

While this tempest was raining upon the Confederates from the fleet, 
Sherman and Morgan opened their field batteries. Then the troops 
advanced, and the musketry began. The Union troops were preparing 
to charge across the plateau and sweep o^:er the breastworks, when they 
saw a white flag go up. General Churchill had not ordered it, nor did he 
know who had raised it. " Take it down !" shouted a Confederate officer ; 
but no one obeyed the order, for the soldiers had lost heart and thrown 
down their guns. The whole Confederate force was surrendered, with 
seventeen cannon. The success revived the spirits of the Union troops, 
which had begun to droop after the repulse at Chickasaw Bluffs. 

The army returned to the mouth of the Arkansas, where General 
Grant soon arrived and took command of all the troops, and laid his plans 
for capturing Vicksburg. General Banks, with several thousand men, and 
the fleet under Admiral Farragut, were to co-operate with him by advanc- 
ing from New Orleans to capture Port Hudson. 

During the winter gangs of slaves had been at work on the bluffs at 
that point, piling up great banks of earth and lifting heavy guns into posi- 
tion. The batteries commanded the river for a distance of four miles. 
Opposite the town the river makes a bend — running north-east, then 
turning sharply to the south. Many of the vessels of Farragut's fleet 
had been sent from the Mississippi to service elsewhere, and he had 
only seven, besides the mortar-boats. The Hartfor^d, destined to become, 
like the Constitution, one of the historic ships of our country and of the 
world, was the flag-ship. The fleet was to ascend the river, not for the 
purpose of engaging the batteries, but to aid General Grant and to patrol 
the river between Port Hudson and Vicksburg, to prevent the Confeder- 
ates east of the Mississippi from receiving supplies from the States west 
of it. To insure success a gunboat was to be lashed to the port or left 
side of the three largest ships. The Albatross was fastened to the Hart- 
ford, the Genesee to the Hichmond, the Kineo to the Monongahela. The 



44 



MAECHING TO VICTOKY. 



Mississippi was an old steamer with side wheels, and could not be lashed 
to another vessel. General Banks was to advance from Baton Rouge, 
to make a demonstration by land. He had only twelve thousand men, 
while General Gardiner, commanding at Port Hudson, had sixteen thou- 
sand Confederates. 

On the afternoon of March 14th the fleet steamed up the river, the 
iron-clad Essex and the mortar-boats tying up to the eastern bank by 
Prophet's Island. The sailors up at the mast-head could see the yellow 
earth-works where the Confederate cannon were planted. A courier came 





UNITED STATES SLOOrOF-WAR "HARTFORD," 



in from General Banks, who was ready to advance in rear of the town. 
The sun went down and the twilight faded away. During the night the 
sailors saw a red light flickering at the stern of the Hartford' there were 
answering lights from each ship, and then the anchors began to rise from 
the water, and each crew stood beside their guns, their sleeves rolled up, 
rammers and sponges in hand, shells placed beside the cannon. Upon the 
quarter-deck stood the admiral, with his little boy — his only son — by his 
side, who had come to visit his father. 

" Your son will be safer down below with me, and he may be able to 
assist me," said Surgeon Foltz to Farragut. 




.iiiiiiiiilliiiiilniliillillilllliiiilllillilillillllUII 



IN THE SOUTH-WEST. 47 

" 'No, tliat will not do. It is true our only child is on board by chance, 
,nd he is not in the service ; but being here, he will act as one of my 
ides to assist in conveying my orders, and we will trust in Providence 
nd in the fortunes of war," was the reply. 

" I want to be on deck where I can see the fight," said the boy. 

While the vessels were getting ready, the admiral was showing his son 
low to make a tourniquet to stop the flowing of blood from an artery — 
lutting a piece of rope around his arm, with a knot in it which would 
•ress against an artery, then twisting it with a bit of wood or a jack- 
;nife. 

Those on the vessels saw a rocket rise in the air from the eastern 
iluffs, and the next moment shells were bursting over the fleet. Then 
lie rifled-gun at the bow of the Hartford sent its answer. From the 
leet of mortar-boats down by Prophet's Island came a roll of thunder, 
nd arched lines of light trailed through the air. Then there were flashes 
bove the Confederate batteries where the thirteen-inch shells were burst- 
iig, and raining jagged pieces of iron upon the men working the guns. 

Fires of pitch-wood were kindled upon the shore by the Confederates 
light up the river that the gunners on the bluffs might take surest aim 
t the vessels. Clouds of smoke roll up from the guns of the Hartford 
dense that Thomas R. Carroll, pilot up in the mizzen-top, who knows 
very sand-bar, eddy, and current in the river, cannot see just where he is 
or the moment ; but when the cloud drifts away the men at the wheel, 
nth shells exploding around them and solid shot crashing against the 
ides of the vessel, hear him saying, as coolly as if on his own river steam- 
»oat, "Starboard! Port!" and the grand ship moves on, the spars splin- 
ering, the rigging cut into shreds, but no shot reaching the boilers or 
ngine. 

Less fortunate the other vessels. A shot passed through the steam- 
»ipe of the Richmond, stopping the working of the engine. She was 
Imost past the batteries, in the sharp bend of the river where the current 
5 swift and strong, swirling with such force that the Genesee, lashed to 
ler, was powerless ; and the two boats were whirled back — a whole gun's 
rew being swept away by a single cannon-shot. 

The Ifonongahela, near the turning-point in the river, grounded on 
he western shore. The Kineo''s rudder had been shot away, also the 
iables which lashed her to the Monongahela. For thirty minutes the 
vessels lay there, the shot from the batteries sweeping the decks, disabling 
hree guns. The Kmeo threw out her cables and pulled the Monongon 
lela from the shore, and the vessels drifted down the stream within one 



48 



MAKCHINU TO VICTOKY. 




riusr luusoN. 



liiindrod feet of the imizzlos of the Confederate cannon belcliing grapo 
and canister, and shari>- shooters jumping- npon tlie parapets and tiring 
their nuiskets at the men on the vessels. 

A worse fate r>efell the Miss^issijyjn, Avliich 
ran asliore on the point opposite tlie hist Con- 
federate battery. The engineer put on all steam 
and tried to back tlie vessel. A cross-tire from 
three batteries was tearing the vessel to pieces. 

" It will be impossible to get the vessel ofF," 

said the pilot. Captain Smith ordered the small 

boats to be launched and the wounded lifted into 

them. The guns Mere sjuked, the vessel set on 

tire, burning till daylight, then blowing up with 

an explosion heard far away. AVhen morning 

dawned the Hartford and Albatross were above 

Port Hudson, the remainder of the tleet, each 

vessel more or less disabled, below the town. 

Thirty-tive had been killed and seventy-eight 

Mounded ; but the two vessels above the town, 

togetlier Mith the river gunboats Mhich ran past the batteries at Yicks- 

burg, were sutticient to patrol thv river and interfere seriously with all 

efforts of the Confederates to ferry troops or supplies across the stream. 

Admiral Porter sent down the iron-clad gunboat Indianola. It M'as 
a large, unwieldly craft. The Confederate batteries opened, and it was a 
grand spectacle — the tlaming of the great guns two hundred feet above 
the river, together Avith those at the base of the blutf, the shot and 
shells tossing up the water or exploding around the Indianola, which 
was uninjured. 

The Quttn of the Wtst, the ram which had taken part in the naval 
battle at ALemphis, ran past the batteries on the morning of February 
2d, starting just as the sun was rising, and was under tire nearly an hour. 
"When opposite the city, the Queen of the West rannned the Confederate 
City of VickahurtjAym^ at the levee, damaging that vessel. The ram M'as 
struck twelve times, and had one cannon dismounted. A shell exploded 
in the cabin, but she reached tlie lower lieet. 

The Confederates had several vessels up I\ed River which the Queen 
of the West attempted to capture, but in engnging a Confederate battery 
ran aground and was abandoned by her commander. Colonel Ellet, who 
went on board a small steamer and escaped. The Confederates repaired 
the Queen of the IT'cvA and with the ram Webb and two other boats, on a 



IN THE SOUTH-WEST. 51 

lark night, came upon the Indianola, which had two great coal -barges 
ashed to her sides. There was a flashing of cannon in the darkness, and a 
amniing of the Indianola by the powerful Queen. The water began to 
)Our in through the seams of the Indianola. The gunners pitched their 
annon overboard and then surrendered. 

The sailors and soldiers with Admiral Porter and General Grant above 
/"icksburg obtained an old coal-barge, raised a frame over it which they 
overed with boards, making port-holes in which they placed logs of wood 
represent cannon. They knocked out the heads of some empty pork- 
larrels and piled one upon another for smoke-stacks, placed one tobacco 
LOgshead forward, another aft, to represent turrets, and a third for a pilot- 
louse, made a fireplace under the smoke-stacks, in which they placed a 
larrel of tar. The night was dark when they cut it adrift — first setting 
he tar on fire, which sent up a great black column of smoke. The Con- 
ederate sentinels saw a craft in aj)pearance almost like the Indianola., 
t^hich they had captured, and which was being repaired below Yicksburg. 
?he batteries opened, but the Union craft moved slowly on, never return- 
ng fire. The Confederates could not think of having the Indianola re- 
aptured ; they set her on fire and fled to the shore. Then came a loud 
xplosion ; the air was filled with planks and burning timbers, which 
ained down into the water, and that was the last of the Indianola. The 
2ueen of the West and the other Confederate vessels steamed down the 
tream to get beyond the reach of the guns of the iron-clad, as they sup- 
>osed it to be, while the Union soldiers on the Arkansas shore danced, 
houted, and hurrahed at the fooling they had given the Confederates. 

The valley of the Mississippi below Memphis is very wide, and there 
re many Avindings to the great river. When the winter floods pour out 
rom the Ohio and its tributaries — the Cumberland, Tennessee, Wabash, 
tluskingum, Scioto, and Illinois, on the eastern side, from the Missouri, 
Arkansas, and the vast net-work of lakes, bayous, and rivers of Arkansas on 
he west, the bottom-lands of the valley are all overflowed, or are only 
[ejDt free from inundation by the embankments which have been erected, 
nd which are called levees. The bottom-lands are covered with a dense 
orest of luxuriant tulip, magnolia, cypress, sycamore, cotton -wood, and 
;um trees, with twining vines and cane thickets. The soil is deep and 
Jack. Along the crescent-shaped lakes and shores of the bayous it is a 
limy ooze. There are sink-holes where man or animal would disappear, 
^'here the air is thick with malaria, and where chills and fever break down 
he strongest constitution. People who live upon these lands have sunken 
iheeks and sallow complexions. At times the floods suddenly rise and 



52 MAKCHING TO VICTORY. 

tlien their log-cabins, corn-ricks, and barns, their horses, cattle, and every- 
thing else is carried away by the sweeping torrent, which frequently cuts 
across a point of land and forms a new channel for the Father of "Waters. 

The winter floods were rising. General Grant knew that the Missis- 
sippi opposite the mouth of the Yazoo flows north-east five miles until it 
strikes the high bluffs above Vicksburg, makes a sharp bend opposite the 
city, then flows south-west. He knew that the bluffs extended south for 
nearly seven miles to Warrenton ; that twenty-eight heavy guns had been 
mounted by the Confederates nearly two hundred feet above the river, 
which could send their shot and shell down upon the gunboats, or throw 
them far and wide over the point of land opposite the town. When Ad- 
miral Farragut came up from New Orleans with his fleet of ocean sailing 
war-ships in 1862 he ran past the batteries, but it was seen that the place 
could not be taken by the gunboats. He set two thousand negroes to 
cutting a canal across the point of land opposite the town, intending by so 
doing to open a new channel for the river, but the opening at the upper 
end did not start at the proper angle to make it successful, and the Missis- 
sippi still swept past the town. General Grant set four thousand men to 
work enlarging and altering it, but the dam at the upper end gave way, 
tilled the canal with water, stopping work, but not clearing a new chan- 
nel. Dredge-boats came from Louisville worked by steam-engines, which 
scooped out cart-loads of mud, but the Confederate cannon opened upon 
them, new batteries were constructed opjjosite the lower end of the canal, 
and the work had to be abandoned. 

General Grant had foreseen the possible failure of the attempt, and 
was looking the while in other directions. Thirty miles above Vicksburg, 
in Arkansas, is Lake Providence — a crescent-shaped sheet of water which 
connects with the Tensas River, a branch of Red River. The engineers 
thought a passage might be opened to that stream, by which the troops 
could co-operate with General Banks and Admiral Farragut, take Port 
Hudson, receiving their supplies from New Orleans. General M'Pher- 
son's corps was sent to clear a channel. The soldiers stood waist-deep in 
mud and water digging out stumps, cutting down trees, doing a great deal 
of hard work. The canal was opened, one steamboat with barges passed 
through, but the river did not cut a new channel, and when the water be- 
gan to fall it was no longer navigable. 

The engineers reported another plan — the opening of what all the 
river men called the Yazoo Pass. Opposite the town of Helena is Moon 
Lake, connected by a narrow channel with the Mississippi, and also con- 
nected with the Coldwater River, a branch of the Tallahatchie, which 



IN THE SOUTH-WEST. 



53 




CUTTING THE CANAL. 
From a Sketch made at the Time. 



emptied into the Yazoo. The lake is seventy miles north of Yicksburg. 
When the levees — the embankments along the Mississippi — were con- 
structed the channel leadine; to Moon Lake was filled. The eno;ineers 



54 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



providence' 



^'ICKSBURG 



now proposed to cut the embankment. The soldiers dug away the earth, ^ 
and the water rushed in, sweeping fallen trees, drift-wood, and everything 
else before it. The gunboats followed, and steamers with four thousand 
soldiers, but they found it difficult to get od, for the great sycamores and 

cotton-woods with their interlocked 
branches blocked the way. There 
was a clattering of axes, and the re- 
moval of great piles of drift-wood, 
but the boats only made eight miles 
in three days. 

General Pemberton, at Yicks- 
burg, learning through his scouts 
and spies what General Grant was 
doing, constructed a fort, which bore 
his own name, at Greenwood. Eight 
lieavy cannon were mounted, trees 
felled, and a great raft moored to 
prevent the passage of the gunboats. 
General Loring was in command with 
two thousand men. 

Admiral Porter sent five gun- 
boats to bombard the fort. Gen- 
eral Grant sent a brigade to assist ; 
but the whole country was under 
water, and the troops could do noth- 
ing against the Confederates, who 
were on a point of land not over- 
flowed. The gunboats opened fire, but it was soon seen that there was 
little chance of accomplishing anything, and the fleet returned to Helena. 

General Grant had discovered another route by which he hoped to 
gain the rear of Yicksburg. He could not go up the Yazoo above Haines's 
Bluffs with the fleet, for there Confederate batteries blocked the way ; 
but he could go up Steele's Bayou, near the mouth of the Yazoo, fort}' 
miles to Black Bayou, go through that into Deer Creek, and up that thirty 
miles to Rolling Fork, through that to Sunflower River, and down that 
fifty miles to the Yazoo, above Yazoo Cit}^ The entire distance would 
be nearly two hundred miles. General Grant and Admiral Porter both 
went as far as Black Bayou, and found nothing in the way which could 
not readily be removed. They hoped to get the gunboats and steamers 
with troops into the Yazoo before Pemberton learned of the movement. 




RT GIBSON 



PROVIDENCE LAKE EXPEDITION. 



IN THE SOUTH-WEST. 



55 



They did not know that Pemberton's spies kept him fully informed of all 
that was going on. 

On March 16th the gunboats started, and on the 18th they were 
almost to the Rolling Fork. Admiral Porter had seen no signs of any 
Confederates ; but on the 19th, when near the Sunflower, shells came 
crashing through the woods, sharp-shooters began to pick off the men, 
and Porter discovered that a brigade was moving to get in his rear, erect 
a battery, build a raft, and prevent his going back. General Sherman 
had been directed to follow Porter with his corps, but was several miles 
distant. The admiral found a negro who knew all the surrounding coun- 
try, and who could pick his way through the swamps in the darkest night, 
and intrusted him with a message to Sherman. It was written on tissue- 
paper, and the negro wrajDped it up in a plug of tobacco, made his way 
through the canebrakes, along lonely paths, eluding the Confederate 
pickets, and found General Sher- 
man, who was at Hill's Plantation, 
on Deer Creek, and who ordered 
Gen. Giles A. Smith, who had eiglit 
hundred men there, to start at once 
and make his way to the gunboats. 
General Sherman jumped into a ca- 
noe, and paddled down Black Bayou 
alone to the steamer Silver Wave, 
with more troops on board. He or- 
dered a portion of the troops to get 
into a coal-barge, which was taken in 
tow by a tug-boat, which was followed 
by the Silver Wave; and together 
they went up the bayou, crashing be- 
tween the trees, losing the pilot- 
-house, the smoke-stacks, and every- 
[ thing above the deck. The night 
^was pitch dark, and the steamer 
could make little headway, where- 
upon General Sherman, impatient at 
the delay, landed the troops, lighted 
torches, and they picked their way through the canebrake till they reached 
an old cotton-field. Daylight came. They could hear the thunder of the 
cannon, and went in that direction upon the run, General Sherman on foot 
with the soldiers. They followed an old road, which took them through 




EXPERIMENT BY MOON LAKE. 



56 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



swamps where the water was waist-deep, where the soldiers slung their 
cartridge-boxes around their necks, and the drummer - boys held their 
drums above their heads. The cannonading was thirty miles away, but 
before noon they had made twenty-one miles, when they met a portion of 

the Eighth Missouri, which had been 
sent down by Admiral Porter to 
prevent the Confederates from plant- 
ing a battery in his rear. 

General Sherman sat down upon 
the door-sill of a negro cabin to rest, 
when just ahead he heard the rattle 
of musketry. He ran up the road 
and found that the troops had sud- 
denly come upon a detachment of 
Confederates, and a gang of slaves 
with axes and shovels, intending to 
erect a battery. The troops deploy- 
ed and charged through the woods, 
putting the Confederates to fliglit. 
Major Kirby, of the Missouri Eighth 
Regiment, had picked up a horse 
which he brought to General Sher- 
man. There was no saddle, but the 
general leaped upon the bare back 
of the animal and went on. The 
sailors on the gunboats gave a cheer 
when they saw the soldiers led by a general riding an old horse without a 
saddle. Protected from the sharp-shooters, the gunboats worked their 
way through t*he bayous, and once more reached the Mississippi at the 
mouth of the Yazoo, where they had been through the preceding months. 
General Banks, in December, sailed from New York with an army of 
more than thirty thousand men for New Orleans to relieve General But- 
ler, and to operate against the Confederates in Texas and Louisiana. He 
was to co-operate with Admiral Farragut in the capture of Port Hud- 
son, and when that place was taken, ascend the river and aid in capturing 
Vicksburg; but Port Hudson was strongly fortified, and had not been 
taken. 

The repeated failures of General Grant to take Vicksburg and open 
the Mississippi greatly encouraged the Confederates. Jefferson Davis vis- 
ited Vicksburg, made speeches to his old friends, saying that it was a 




EXPERIMENT BY STEELE'S BAYOU. 



IN THE SOUTH-WEST. 



57 




STEAMBOATS IN THE WOODS. 
From a War-time Sketch. 



Gibraltar, and could not be taken. The Peace Democrats in the Northern 
States gleefully reiterated the statement. They said that the Union army 
and gunboats never could reopen the Mississippi. Intermeddling politi- 
cians went to Washington to induce President Lincoln to remove Gen- 
eral Grant and appoint General McClernand, or some other man, to com- 
mand the army. 



58 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

" I rather like the man," was the President's cahn reply. 

General Halleck was urging General Grant to do something. " The 
President seems to be rather impatient abont matters on the Mississippi. 
Could you not co-operate with Banks against Port Hudson ?" he wrote, 
April 2d. Through the winter General Grant had been doing his utmost. 
People who were at home, with all the comforts of life around them, 
little knew of the obstacles in his way. The Confederate batteries and 
the army under Pemberton, at Yicksburg, were not the chief obstruc- 
tions, but the swamps, and the great flood pouring out from all the 
streams. The troops at Young's Point, on the bank of the Mississippi, 
were only a few inches out of water. From January on the whole region 
had been flooded. The troops had waded through swamps by day, and 
slept at night upon the water-soaked earth. The one object which Gen- 
eral Grant had in view was to gain the rear of Yicksburg with sufiicient 
supplies to support him till he could open communications. All his 
eiforts had resulted in failures. General Sherman believed that the best 
course for him to take was to go back to Memphis with the whole army, 
march east to Corinth, and take the route he had tried in 1862,(^) de- 
pending upon the railroad for food ; but General Grant remembered the 
burning of his supjjlies at Holly Springs ("Drum-beat of the Nation," 
p. 452), and made no reply to the letter which Sherman had written ad- 
vocating the movement. 

Again General Halleck wrote on April 9th, urging him to do some- 
thino;. It is a g-reat and noble character which can maintain its calmness 
and serenity at such a time. He was confronted by a large array, in a 
position so strong by nature that it was regarded as impregnable. He 
himself had been turned back from Holly Springs. General Sherman had 
been repulsed at Chickasaw bluffs. The war-ships of Farragut, the gun- 
boats of Porter, and the mortar-boats had rained their shells upon the ene- 
my's batteries, but witli no more effect than gravel-stones tossed upon the 
roof of a house. All the attempts through the bayous had failed. Sick- 
ness was thinning the ranks. Hospital boats were transporting hundreds 
of soldiers broken down by malaria to Cairo. The graves of the dead 
along the levee at Young's Point and Milliken's Bend were rapidly multi- 
plying. Men who knew nothing of the obstacles that confronted General 
Grant, who were utterly ignorant of military affairs, were denouncing him 
as incompetent. They said that the army was wasting away; the Missis- 
sippi was swallowing it ; it was lost in the swamp ; nothing would be 
accomplished under such a commander. The newspapers began to speak 
disparagingly. General Halleck was informing him that the President 



IN THE SOUTH-WEST. 61 

was impatient. General McClernand wanted to be commander, and his 
friends were at work to secure the removal of Grant. The Copperheads 
were plotting against him. Through all the trying period, no word in 
self-defence fell from the lips of the man whose only thought was how to 
get at the Confederate army holding Vicksburg. 



NOTES TO CHAPTER III. 

(') Semmes, " Memoirs of Service Afloat," p. 584. 

C) Badeau, "Military History of General Grant," p. 180. 



02 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



CHAPTER IV. 

GETTING IN REAR OF VICKSBURG. 

GENERAL GRANT the while was studying the map which the engi- 
neers had made for him. He saw that the Big Black River, which 
rises north-east of Yicksbnrg, runs south-west and empties into the Missis- 
sippi twenty miles south of the city in a straight line, but much farther 
than that by the river. General Pemberton, in command of the Confed- 
erates at Yicksburg, would make it his line of defence in rear. He saw 
tliat there was also a net-work of lakes and streams west of the Missis- 
sipjji, and that by cutting a short canal from Duck Point, opposite the 
mouth of the Yazoo, to Walnut Bayou — a small stream winding through 
the forest, he could send flat-boats loaded with supplies by a roundabout 
way, past Yicksburg, to the Mississippi, opposite the mouth of the Big 
Black, The gunboats had run past the batteries so often that he deter- 
mined to send down transport steamers. The army could march to a 
place called Hard Times, a hamlet opposite the mouth of the Big Black. 

On April 13tli the short piece of canal was completed, and all was 
ready for the most brilliant strategic movements of the war. Small steam- 
ers worked their way through the canal into the bayous. The wood-chop- 
pers cut away the trees. Flat-boats loaded with provisions followed. The 
army picked its way through the forest, building miles of corduroy road 
for the artillery and wagons. 

At ten o'clock on the night of April 16th, Admiral Porter, on the flag- 
ship Benton, gave the signal and moved down the river. The Lafayette 
followed with the Price lashed on the starboard side to shield her ; then 
came the Louisville, Mound City, Pittsburg, and Carondelet, and the trans- 
ports Forest Queen, Silver Wave, and LLenry Clay, each protected by cot- 
ton bales, loaded with supplies and annnunition, and each with a boat in 
tow, transporting ten thousand bushels of coal. The Tuscumbia brought 
up the rear. 

It is ten minutes to eleven when the Benton rounds the point above 
the Confederate batteries. Instantly the Confederate artillerymen spring 



I 11 ImiH . 

\' U; ^HiJ. 




GETTING IN KEAK OF VICKSBURG. 65 

to their guns. The bluffs are a sheet of flame. The Confederates set a 
block of houses at the front of the bluff on fire to light uj) the river, but 
at two o'clock all the gunboats and all but one of the transports are safely 
moored at Hard Times. The transport Henry Clay is the only vessel lost 
— set on fire by a shell. On the night of the 22d five more river steamers 
safely passed the batteries. 

Just below the mouth of the Big Black is Grand Gulf — a landing- 
place on the east side of the river, where the bluffs rise seventy-five feet 
above the water, and where the Confederates had erected a line of bat- 
teries. In the upper battery were two seven-inch rifled guns, one eight- 
inch smooth-bore, and a 30-pound rifled cannon. Three-quarters of a mile 
farther down were one eight-inch smooth-bore, two 32-pounders, and one 
100-pound rifle and five smaller cannon. 

At 7 A.M. on the morning of April 29th the gunboats attacked the bat- 
teries. The Confederates' cannon could send their shot and shell straiirht 
down upon the boats, which suffered so much that at one o'clock they 
withdrew. General Grant saw a better way. 

At eight o'clock in the evening the gunboats and the transports ran 
past these batteries and came to anchor four miles below. While this was 
going on General McClernand's troops were marching from Hard Times 
to Mr. De Shroon's plantation. 

At daylight, April 30th, 18,000 troops were drawn up in long lines on 
the bank of the river. The steamboats ran out their planks, the regiments 
went on board, and at noon they were on the eastern shore. 

General Pemberton was greatly perplexed. He had more than 60,000 
men, but they w^ere widely scattered. At Yicksburg there were 22,000 ; 
at Port Hudson, 16,000 ; at Grand Gulf, 2500 ; at Fort Pemberton, on the 
Yazoo, more than one hundred miles from Yicksburg, 7000. "While Gen- 
eral Grant and a portion of the gunboats were moving down the river. 
General Sherman and the rest of the fleet (eight gunboats) were threaten- 
ing to attack at Haines's Bluff, on the Yazoo. At that moment a cavalry 
force under General Grierson M^as sweeping south the whole length of the 
State, destroying bridges and railroads. 

It was startling news which came to Pemberton over the wires on the 
evening of the 30th — that a great body of Union troops had crossed the 
river and was marching north-east from the plantation of Mr. Bruin tow- 
ards Port Gibson, on the south side of the Big Black, ten miles south-east 
of Grand Gulf. He saw that it was not at Haines's Bluff, north of Yicks- 
burg, but that south and east of the city was the great danger. Grant 
was threatening his rear. He sent telegrams in all directions for troops at 
5 



6Q MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

Granada, Columbus, Meridian, and other points, to hasten to Jackson, the 
capital of the State. He sent Tracy's and Baldwin's brigades to Port 
Gibson to join General Green and oppose Grant's advance. 

At daylight. May 1st, General Carr's division of McClernand's corps 
came upon the Confederate pickets at Magnolia church, three miles west 
of Port Gibson. 

The Confederates were commanded by General Bowen, who had 8500 
men, and who posted them across the road near the church, in a strong 
position on uneven ground, witli a canebi'ake in front. Tliey fought stub- 
bornly, but were driven, losing 60 killed, 340 wounded, 600 prisoners, 
and a battery. The battle w^as fought by McClernand's corps. General 
Bowen retreated, burning the bridge over the south fork of the Bayou 
Pierre. 

The Union troops pressed on, entered Port Gibson, rebuilt the bridge, 
marched eight miles to the north fork, found the bridge there on fire, 
extinguished the flames, put in new timbers, and at daybreak, May 3d, the 
army was moving across it. 

General Pemberton hurried up reinforcements, swelling the Confed- 
erate force to 17,000 ; but Bowen saw that he must retreat still farther. 
He crossed the Big Black to the northern bank and blew up the batteries 
at Grand Gulf. The gunboats took possession of that place, and Grant 
made it his base of supplies. 

" Join me as quickly as possible," was the order sent April 29th by 
Grant to Sherman, who was at Haines's Bluff on the Yazoo, and who re- 
ceived it the next morning. 

" Take up your line of march for Hard Times," was Sherman's order 
to General Steele and General Tuttle, commanding divisions at Milliken's 
Bend. In the darkness his own and Blair's divisions moved away from 
before Haines's Bluff to Milliken's Bend, and thence began their march 
for Hard Times. 

" Organize a train of one hundred and twenty wagons," was Grant's 
order to Sherman. 

The wagons worked their way through the woods and over the cordu- 
roy roads to Hard Times, and were ferried across the river to Grand Gulf. 
Sherman's troops crossed, and on May 7th the whole army was on the 
east bank of the river. 

General Grant had planned a campaign which must be carried out 
with great energy. He proposed not to march directly upon Vicksburg, 
but to push north-east to Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, capture it, 
destroy the railroad, then turn about, march west, cross the Big Black, 



GETTING IN REAR OF VICKSBUEG. 67 

and drive the Confederates from Haines's Bluff and oi3en commnnication 
with the Yazoo Kiver, The one hundred and twenty wagons would carry 
only five days' rations. When those were gone the army must live on 
whatever corn and bacon they could find in the granaries and smoke- 
houses of the plantations. 

His troops were the Thirteenth Corps (McClernand), Fifteenth Corps 
(Sherman), Seventeenth Corps (McPherson). They marched north-east. 

At daylight, May 12th, Logan's division of McPherson's corps came 
upon the Confederate pickets at Fourteen Mile Creek, a small tributary 
of the Big Black. They belonged to Gregg's brigade, which had come 
in hot haste from Port Hudson to dispute Grant's advance to Jackson. 
Gregg was driven, losing more than five hundred men and two cannon. 

A railroad runs east from Yicksburg to Jackson, crossing the Big 
Black at Bovina. Edwards's Station is the first east of the Big: Black. 
The town of Raymond is fourteen miles south-east of Edwards's Station, 
and the same distance from Jackson. Clinton is the first station on the 
railroad west of Jackson. 

" Grant cannot live long for want of provisions," was the message sent 
by Jefferson Davis, in Richmond, to Pemberton. 

" Proceed at once to Mississippi and take chief command of the forces 
there," was Davis's message to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, who arrived at 
Jackson May 13tli, just as Gregg, with Walker's brigade, was coming into 
the city after being defeated at Raymond. 

"I am too late," w^as the message which flew over the wire to Rich- 
mond from Johnston. 

"Vicksburg must be held at all hazards," was the despatch to Pem- 
berton from Jefferson Davis, who was undertaking to direct affairs. Johns- 
ton had laid his plans to concentrate the scattered Confederate troops, 
and defeat Grant in a pitched battle. Pemberton was holding Vicks- 
burg, and had his army scattered along the Big Black at the several 
ferries. 

General Grant saw that he must act with great energy, move east, 
wipe out the forces gathering at Jackson under Johnston, then turn and 
confront Pemberton, cut off his communications, open his own, and pen s 
him up in Yicksburg. 

There was excitement in Richmond and also in Washington. General 
Grant had not informed General Halleck of his plans, but had exercised 
his own judgment as to what he ought to do. General Halleck was 
angry at what he regarded as rashness and disobedience on the part of 
General Grant, and sent a despatch ordering him to turn back, go down 



08 MAECHING TO VICTORY. 

the river, unite his forces with those of General Banks, and attack Port 
Hudson. 

Through the winter and spring Grant has been trying to get at Vicks- 
burg. He has made such slow progress that the Confederates have 
laughed at him. It lias never occurred to them that he might sudden- 
ly abandon the attempt to get in at the fi-ont door and make his ap- 
pearance with a loud knocking at the back door. But there he is, and 
whatever is done to stop him must be done quickly by Pemberton and 
Johnston. 

The rain is pouring on the morning of May 14th, but there is great 
activity in Jackson. General Johnston is loading supplies, ammunition, 
and baggage of every description into the cars. He knows that Grant is 
pushing east to capture the city. He has only Gregg's and Walker's 
troops to oppose him. He posts Gregg on the road leading to Raymond, 
facing west, and Walker on the Clinton road, leading north, and hopes that 
they will be able to hold the intrenchments till General Maxey arrives 
from Port Hudson with a brigade, and Colonel Gist with another from 
South Carolina, which will give him eleven thousand. They are only 
twenty- four hours distant. 

Through the morning the Union soldiers stood in the pelting rain. 
They could not handle their cartridges ; but at noon the clouds cleared, 
and Sherman advanced against Gregg, and McPherson against Walker. 

Crocker's division was in the front on McPherson's line, Logan in his 
rear, with Stevenson's brigade on the left to flank the Confederates. The 
conflict began in a thicket a mile in front of the Confederate breastworks. 
Crocker's men quickly cleared the woods. 

McPherson waited to hear from Sherman. Going south-west, we see 
Sherman's artillery beginning the cannonade. General Johnston acts 
with admirable prudence. He orders the Confederate artillery and skir- 
mishers to keep up a continuous fire. He sees that he cannot resist 
the combined attack of McPherson and Sherman, and while his seven- 
teen cannon are flashing, Walker and Gregg are hastening northward. 
It was three o'clock before Sherman was ready to advance. When his 
troops moved on they found only a line of skirmishers and the artil- 
lerymen, who surrendered, two hundred and fifty in number, with ten 
cannon. 

Crocker's division at the same time rushed across the open field, drove 
the Confederates, capturing seven guns and several hundred prisoners. 
With drums beating and colors flying, the Union troops entered the city 
and flung out the Stars and Stripes above the capital. 



GETTING IN REAR OF VICKSBURG. 



69 



A cotton warehouse with a steam-engine and machinery, which Sher- 
man thought might be of value to the Confederates if not destroyed, was 
set on fire by his orders. Soldiers with crow-bars and sledges tore up the 
tracks of the railroads. There were 
barrels of flour, bacon, and ham in 
the warehouses which Johnston had 
not been able to take away, and the 
Union soldiers, who had had little 
to eat since crossing the Mississippi, 
satisfied their hunger with the capt- 
ured food. General Grant supposed 
that Johnston would retreat south- 
ward, but he was, instead, march- 
ing towards Clinton, northward, hop- 
ing to join Pemberton. He did 
not comprehend the meaning of 

Grant's movement ; neither did Pemberton understand it. General Johns- 
ton had ordered Pemberton to march north-eastward towards Clinton, 
hoping thus to join tlie two forces and make an army large enough to re- 
sist Grant. Pemberton called a council of his officers. They were di- 
vided in oj)inion as to what ouglit to be done. He decided at last not to 
march to join Johnston, but to attack Grant's rear, not seeing that what on 
the 14th was the rear, on the 15th would be Grant's front. The Union 
troops were no longer moving east, but all were facing west — Hovey's, 
Logan's, and Crocker's divisions at Bolton Station, marching along the rail- 
road ; Osterhaus's and Carr's di- 




GRANT S MOVEMENT IN REAR OF VICKS- 
BURG. 



-nnlcr ^ Cjee /c^ 



visions on the Middle road, four 
miles south ; Blair's and A. J. 
Smith's divisions on the Ray- 
mond road, two miles farther 
south — all moving west towards 
Baker's Creek. 

General Pemberton had 
placed his army in position east 
of the creek. Suddenly he 
changed his mind and decided, 
instead of attacking Grant, to 
obey Johnston, hasten north- 
east and join his superior. He did not realize that, while his troops were 
scattered. Grant at sunset on the night of May 15th had thirty-two thou- 
5* 




CHAMPION HILL. 



70 MARCHING TO VICTORY, 

sand men at hand. Pemberton had eighty regiments, with about twenty- 
five thousand men. 

On the south side of the railroad, half-way between Edwards's and 
Bolton stations, was the plantation of Mr, Champion, on a hill which rises 
seventy-five feet above the surrounding plain and extends southward more 
than a mile. The road from Clinton running west winds along the east- 
ern base, joins the Middle road, which runs along the southern slope, and 
crosses Baker's Creek. 

It was nearly eight o'clock on the morning of the 16th of May when 
A. J, Smith's division, which had bivouacked near Mr. Elliston's house, 
moving west along the Raymond road, came upon Loring's division of 
Pemberton's army. Bowen's Confederate division was next in line tow- 
ards Champion's Hill, while Stevenson's division was at the foot of the 
hill, near the junction of the Clinton and Middle roads, Pemberton's 
troops were all hastening north with the intention of joining Johnston, 
but suddenly found that they must fight a battle, Hovey's Union divis- 
ion was advancing rapidly towards the hill, with Logan close at hand and 
Crocker not far behind. At ten o'clock there was a rattling fire along the 
picket lines. Both armies were deploying — Hovey's division of Grant's 
army at the turn of the road, facing west ; Logan's, moving by the right 
flank, holds the right of the line, his men facing south. 

In front of Logan was Barton's Confederate brigade ; in front of Ho- 
vey, Lee's and Cummings's brigades. Hovey began the attack, his left flank 
pushing up the hill, advancing step by step, charging upon Cummings's 
brigade, capturing eleven cannon. 

J. E. Smith's and another brigade of Logan's division advanced on 
Hovey's right, but niet with a stubborn resistance. 

General Logan halted a soldier who was making his way to the rear. 
" The rebels are awful thick up there, general," the soldier said. 

" Then that is the place to shoot them," was the answer. 

Logan brought up his reserve brigade — Stevenson's, We are not to 
forget that the Confederate general Stevenson commanded a division, while 
the Union general Stevenson commanded a brigade. The Union Steven- 
son's men rushed across a ravine, striking the Confederate line between 
Barton's and Lee's brigades and captured seven guns. 

Things had gone badly with the Confederate Stevenson, but help was 
at hand. Bowen arrived, Cockrell's brigade in advance, with Green's be- 
hind it. They came upon Hovey's flank, forcing the Union troops down 
the hill and back through Mr. Champion's fields, compelling them to aban- 
don all but tvro of the eleven cannon captured. 



GETTING IN REAR OF VICKSBURG. 73 

A Confederate soldier gives this description of the scene : 

" One of the charges was made by General Green's brigade of Missouri 
and Arkansas troops, not numbering over eleven hundred men. They ad- 
vanced with the utmost coolness upon the enemy's forces, consisting of 
two batteries supported by another division. They charged up to within 
thirty yards of the artillery when the Yankee gunners, who were lying 
beside their pieces, drew the strings attached to the friction primers, dis- 
charging their guns, and poured in such a volley of canister as compelled 
our men to fall back."(') 

But help was at hand for Hovey — Crocker's division. Together they 
advance, driving Cockrell and Green, while Cummings's brigade, which 
had stood resolutely through the forenoon, broke and fled towards Baker's 
Creek. Bowen's Confederate division held its ground for a while, but was 
pushed back, leaving five of the guns which had been lost in the begin- 
ning, then recaptured, while Bowen retreated towards Baker's Creek, and 
the Union troops took possession of the hill. 

Going south, we see Loring sending Buford's and Featherston's Con- 
federate brigades north to assist Bowen and Stevenson, while Tilghman's 
brigade remains to hold A. J. Smith's and Blair's Union divisions in check ; 
but before Loring reaches the hill Bowen and Stevenson are fleeing tow- 
ards Baker's Creek. Loring formed his two brigades across the road, but 
Osterhaus routed him. Tilghman was killed, and his brigade (with Lor- 
ing's) retreated towards a ford across Baker's Creek. Before the Confed- 
erates could reach it General Carr's division pushed on and took possession 
of the road. Loring abandoned all his cannon and wagons and hastened 
south across flelds, through woods, reaching Crystal Springs, twenty-five 
miles south of the battle-field, while Bowen and Stevenson made their way 
to the Big Black River. 

Pemberton had lost twenty -four cannon and nearly four thousand 
men. As he rode across the Big Black to the western bank he said to 
those around him, " I call upon you, gentlemen, to witness that I am not 
responsible for this battle — I am but obeying the orders of General Johns- 
ton."0 

Sunday morning' dawned, August 17th, with Bowen's division of Con- 
federates behind a line of breastworks which had been thrown up on the 
east bank of Big Black River. It was nearly eight o'clock when Carr's 
division of McClernand's corps came through a piece of woods on the 
north side of the road leading to the river ; Osterhaus's and A. J. Smith's 
divisions were south of the road. The Confederate artillery opened fire, 
and the Union cannon replied. Through the morning hours the cannon- 



74 



MAECHING TO VICTORY. 



ade went on. The time came for an assault, and the Union troops went 
forward upon the run — in solid ranks, brigade following brigade, their 
bayonets gleaming in the sun. 

The Confederate troops, disheartened by defeat, worn down by hard 
marching, saw that they were in danger of being cut off. Vaughan's bri- 
gade was the first to break, then 
Bowen's whole division was in 
flight. The lines dissolved, and 
all order was lost. The soldiers 
were panic-stricken. They left 
eighteen cannon and fourteen 
hundred muskets; seventeen 
hundred and fifty -seven men 
gave themselves up as prison- 
ers. The others reached the 
bridge, set it on fire, and fled 
in consternation towards Yicks- 
burg. 

While the infantry and artil- 
lery under General Grant were 
making this movement — which 
will ever be regarded as a mas- 
terpiece of strategy — General 
Grierson, with a brigade of cav- 
alry, was marching nearly the 
entire length of the State. 

It was a beautiful spring 
morning, the 17th of May. The 
birds were singing, the air was 
fragrant with opening flowers, 
the apple-orchards were white 
with blooms. A brigade of 
Union cavalry was moving out 
from La Grange, fifty miles 
south - east of Memphis — the 
Sixth and Seventh Illinois, Sec- 
ond Iowa, and Smith's battery of artillery (Company K, First Illinois) — 
commanded by Colonel Grierson, who had submitted a plan of operations 
to General Grant, He had conceived the idea of making a rapid march, 
for the purpose of burning railroad bridges, tearing up the tracks, destroy- 




GIIIEKSON S KAID. 



\\\\\ 111 I lIllP lifl'^ll I fSa-l,l\>fK 




GETTING IN REAR OF VICKSBURG. 77 

ing trains, and committing havoc wliich would paralyze the Confederate 
operations. If he could destroy the bridges it would prevent General 
Johnston from sending troops and supplies to Yicksburg or from gather- 
ing a Confederate army. 

The preparations were made secretly. The Union soldiers did not 
know wliither they were going. It was of the utmost importance that no 
one should know what Colonel Grierson intended to accomjDlish. He left 
behind all broken-down horses, all weak soldiers, took no provision train. 
He was to march swiftly. He reached the Tallahatchie River, crossed it 
near New Albany, hastened on to the town of Pontotoc, where several 
hundred bushels of salt were stored belonging to the Confederate Govern- 
ment, also a quantity of ammunition. The salt was destroyed, the ammu- 
nition captured. The rapid march had broken down a large number of 
horses and several men, who were sent back to La Grange with one of the 
cannon. Colonel Grierson had fifteen hundred men left. Each cavalry- 
man carried eighty rounds of ammunition. 

On the fifth day Colonel Hatch, with the Second Iowa and one can- 
non, turned east towards Columbus to destroy the railroad and to puzzle 
the Confederates. The movement would lead General Johnston to think 
that Grierson was intending to push east into Alabama. Colonel Hatch 
intended, after destroying the railroad, to sweep north-east and then north- 
west back to La Grange ; but a Confederate force was gathering to inter- 
cept him, and he was obliged to turn south and rejoin Grierson, He lost 
ten men, but captured three hundred rifles and two hundred horses. 

A general to be successful must plan to deceive his opponent. Colo- 
nel Grierson was in a hostile country, did not know the roads, was igno- 
rant of the whereabouts of the Confederate forces, except that Pember- 
ton was in Yicksburg, Gardner at Port Hudson, Bragg in Tennessee, and 
Johnston somewhere in Mississippi, exercising general supervision of the 
Confederate armies. It was necessary that Grierson should have a body 
of men always several miles in front or on his flanks to pick up informa- 
tion. He accordingly organized a company of scouts — brave, quick-witted 
men, who would never be caught napping, and who would always have 
ready a question or an answer. He armed and equipped them as Confed- 
erates, obtained butternut-colored clothing from the plantations, and sup- 
plied them with good horses. When they were fully equipped the mem- 
bers of their own regiments did not know them. They had signs to use 
in the daytime, passwords at night. They visited plantations, pretending 
to be Confederate soldiers, and were royally cared for by the planters, 
their wives and daughters. 



78 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

" Have you seen any Yankee soldiers ?" tliey asked. 

" How lately have any Confederate soldiers been here ?" 

" How far is it to the next town ?" 

"What roads should we take?" 

Such were their questions. At Starkville Colonel Grierson found a 
shoe-factory which was manufacturing thousands of shoes for the Confed- 
erate Government, also a hat-factory — both of which were destroyed. He 
captured a Confederate quartermaster obtaining shoes for the army. 




DESTROYING THE RAILROAD. 



The rains had swollen the rivers, and a great flood was pouring down 
the Big Black, overflowing its banks. But Colonel Grierson was not to 
be turned back by high waters. He obtained a boat, in which the ammu- 
nition was carried over. The river was too deep to be forded, and the 
men swam their horses. Some were swept away by the swift current, 
others went far down sti'eam, and were obliged to pick their way through 
swamps, but the brigade and cannon gained the southern bank at last. 

The scouts captured a courier who was carrying despatches from Gen- 



GETTING IN BEAR OF VICKSBURG. 81 

eral Gardner, commanding the Confederates at Port Hudson, to General 
Pembercon at Vicksburg, thus giving General Grierson important infor- 
mation. The country was well supplied with corn and bacon, and the 
Union soldiers had no difficulty in obtaining food. 

It was half-past eight o'clock in the morning when the scouts reached 
tlie town of Newton, on the raih-oad leading east from Yicksburg. 

" What time are the trains due ?" they asked of an old man who lived 
in a small house on tlie outskirts of the villao;e. 

" The freight - train from the east ought to get along about nine 
o'clock," the reply. " There is the whistle now." 

The scouts, hearing the scream of the locomotive and the rumbling of 
the cars, rode into the town, where there was a hospital with seventy-five 
Confederate patients. They galloped to the railroad-station, leaped from 
tlieir horses, and rushed into the telegraph-offioe. " You are our prisoner," 
they said to the operator. They cut the telegraph-wires, and no more 
messages could be sent from that station till a new instrument was pro- 
cured. 

" The Yanks are here !" The cry came from the hospital, and the 
astonished patients rose from their sick-beds. Those who were nearly 
well rushed into the street. 

" Go back !" was the stern order from the scouts, who levelled their 
carbines, ready to fire, and the patients obeyed. 

The train came thundering up the track — twenty-five cars. It ran 
upon a side track to meet a train from the west. A moment later engi- 
neer, fireman, and brakeman were prisoners. 

Down from the west came the other train — twelve freight-cars and 
one passenger-car; four are loaded with ammunition, six with quarter- 
master stores, two with goods belonging to people who were fleeing from 
Yicksburg. We are to remember that General Grant had not yet begun 
his movement eastM^ard from Port Gibson. The two cars containing the 
household goods were separated from the others, wood was heaped around 
the engines, the fires were kindled, and in a short time they were shape- 
less masses of iron. At eleven o'clock the fire reached the shells, which 
exploded in volleys. Colonel Grierson with the main body was two miles 
away. He heard the explosion, and came wp on the gallop, thinking that 
a fight was going on. He sent a company six miles east to burn bridges, 
and at two o'clock was moving south once more. 

The destruction of the two engines and thirty-fiv^e cars was a serious 
loss to the Confederacy, for they could not be replaced. Men who made 
engines could not be found in a State where men were held as slaves. 
6 



82 MAECHING TO VICTORY. 

On May 1st Colonel Grierson was entering Baton Rouge, in Louisiana, 
where there was a body of Union troops, who were astonished when they 
saw the brigade winding into town. They had been seventeen days on 
the march, destroyed a great many bridges, torn up miles of track, kindled 
fires, bent the rails so that they could not be used again, captured one 
thousand prisoners, one thousand two hundred horses, destroyed more than 
four million dollars' worth of property belonging to the Confederacy, but 
had scrupulously refrained from destroying private property. By his raid 
Grierson had paralyzed the movements of the troops under Johnston. 

We are to remember that on. the morning of May 1st, while Colo- 
nel Grierson was entering Baton Rouge, the troops under General Grant 
were leaving the Mississippi below Port Gibson to begin their Yicksburg 
campaign. ' "» 

NOTES TO CHAPTER IV. 

(') A. S. Abraras, " Siege of Vicksburg," p. 37. 
C) Idem. 



THE ATLANTIC COAST. 83, 



CHAPTER Y. 

THE ATLANTIC COAST. 

WHEK the Monitor sent tlie Merrimac from Hampton Roads back 
to Norfolk with the water pouring in through her seams, the world 
saw that the days of the old-time ships— the wooden seventy-fours and 
frigates — had gone by never to return. Orders were at once given for the 
construction of several more monitors, also of an iron-plated ship, to be 
called the J^ew Ironsides. From the day when the Stars and Stripes had 
been lowered at Fort Sumter there had been one sentiment uj)permost in 
the minds of the people of the North, one fixed, resolute determination 
that the flag should wave once more over that fortress — a determination 
which was behind the order of the Secretary of the Navy for the con- 
struction of the new turreted war-vessels. 

A few days later and there was great activity in the iron-mills. Day 
and night the forges flamed. Through the weeks the great engines never 
ceased their throbbing, or the ponderous steam-hammers their pounding, 
in preparing the iron plates to resist the solid shot which would be hurled 
against them from Sumter, As fast as completed the monitors were sent 
south to Port Royal. 

Knowing that there was to be a bombardment of that fortress, I made 
my way thither to witness it. The Montauk arrived first, steamed down 
past Savannah River to the Ogeechee Sound, and opened fire upon the 
Confederate Fort McAllister, to try her guns and machinery, dismount- 
ing one gun in the fort, killing and wounding several men, remaining four 
hours, using up all her ammunition, and then, the tide going out, steamed 
into deeper water unharmed by the eleven -inch solid shot which had 
struck the turret. 

There was an exciting scene off Charleston on the morning of January 
30th. The Confederates had plated two steamers — ^the Palmetto State 
and Chicora — with railroad iron. The vessels had been strengthened by 
timbers, were mounted with heavy guns, and provided with iron beaks 
which were to be thrust through the sides of the wooden steamers of the 



84 



MAECHING TO VICTORY. 






■Mimh 










THE IRON -MILLS. 




■l^l^Sc'-' 



blockading fleet off the bar, con- 
sisting of nearly a dozen vessels, 
and whicli were keeping such 
vigilant watch that just before 
daybreak one morning they 
captured the English steamer 
Princess Boyal, from Bermuda, 
with a very valuable cargo. The sailors of the fleet were happy over the 
thought that they would have a portion of the prize-money, A thin haze ■ 
was hanging over the water ; the faint dawn of the morning was on the 
eastern sky when the sailors on the Mercedita beheld the Palmetto State 
rushing upon them ; and at the same instant a shell crashed into the ves- 



THE ATLANTIC COAST. 87 

sel, and througli the boiler, letting out the steam upon the unsuspecting 
crew, and the next moment the iron beak of the Confederate craft j)ierced 
the side, letting in a torrent of water. The officer in command, knowing 
that his vessel is helpless, surrenders ; but the Palmetto State cannot stop 
to take the crew on broad — it has more important work in hand, and 
steams with the Chicora for the Keystone State, both vessels sending shells 
through her sides. The Union sailors spring to their guns, the engineer 
puts on steam, and the Keystone State is rushing like a race-horse towards 
the Cliicora to run her down, when a shot pierces her boiler, and she, too, 
is helpless. The whole Union fleet is in motion — the Memphis, while send- 
ing its shot against the Chicora, throws a cable to the Keystone State and 
takes her away ; the Quaker City, the Augusta, the Housatonio are at 
hand, whereupon the two Confederate vessels turn about and make for 
the harbor, anchoring under the guns of Sumter and Moultrie. More 
than one -fourth of the crew of the Keystone State had been killed by 
the shells or scalded by the escaping steam. The Confederates issued a 
proclamation that every one of the vessels of the Union fleet had been 
driven away ; that the blockade had been raised. The British and French 
consuls went down the harbor on a steamboat furnished them by General 
Beauregard, looked with their glasses, but did not see any of the vessels 
of the blockading fleet. General Beauregard published their statements, 
and announced that the blockade had been raised. It was telegraphed 
to Bichmond, and Jefferson Davis reannounced it ; but the next morning 
there were twenty-four war- vessels off Charleston harbor flying the Stars 
and Stripes. 

If the blockade had been really broken, sixty days must have elapsed 
before it could be re - established under the international law ; but the 
merchants of other countries did not see fit to send any vessels openly to 
Charleston. The blockade had not been broken, and the vigilance of the 
fleet was not relaxed. 

The steamer Nashville, owned by the Confederates, which had brought 
a valuable cargo of arms from England to Wilmington, and which were 
used by the Confederate troops in the battles of the Peninsula against 
McClellan, at Fair Oaks, and Glendale, had been cooped up in Savannah 
several months. She was loaded with cotton, carried several cannon, and 
was waiting for an opportunity to slip past the fleet off Savannah, but in 
attempting to do so, on the night of the last day of February, ran aground. 
Captain Worden, on the Montauk, discovered the Nashville, but paying 
no attention to the fire from Fort McAllister, ran up so near that he could 
send his eleven-inch shells into the Confederate vessel, which was riddled 



88 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

tlirongli and through, set on fire, and blown up with an explosion heard 
far along the coast. 

Three more monitors — the Passaic, Patapsco, and Keokuk — wished to 
try their guns on Fort McAllister before engaging Sumter, The channel 
was so narrow that they were, obliged to advance in single file. The Pas- 
saic w^as foremost, and steamed to within half a mile of the fort. I saw 
the bombardment, which lasted eight hours, from the deck of a small 
steamer. The shells and solid shot from the monitors threw up clouds of 
sand from the embankments of the fort, while the solid shot from the 
Confederate guns plunged mostly into the mud and water around the ves- 
sels ; but now and then there came a sound like the blow of a great tilt- 
hammer in an iron-mill — the crash of the shot against the iron turrets, 
which sustained no injury. It was seen, however, that it took so long to 
reload the guns that the Confederates, between the firing, could repair in 
part the damage done to the fort. 

The first attack on Sumter occurred on the Yth of April. The fort 
stood out in bold relief, the bright noon sun shining full upon its southern 
face, fronting the shallow water towards Morris Island, leaving in shadow 
its eastern wall towards Moultrie. The air was clear, and looking inland 
watli my glass, I could see the city, tlie spires, the roofs of the houses 
thronged with peojDle. A three-masted ship lay at the wharves, the Con- 
federate rams were fired uj?, sail-boats were scudding across the harbor, 
running down towards Sumter, then hastening back again, like restless 
little children, eager for something to be done. 

The attacking fleet was in the main ship-channel— eight little black 
specks and one black oblong block, the New Ironsides, the flag-shi|) of the 
fleet. 

The monitors were about one third of a mile apart, in the following 
order : Weehawken, Passaic, Montauk, Patajpsco, New Ironsides, Catskill, 
Nantucket, Nahant, Keokuk. 

General Hunter, commanding the troojDS at Port Royal, had courte- 
ously assigned the steamer Nantucket to the gentlemen connected with 
the press, to go where they pleased, knowing that there was an intense 
desire not only in the IS^orth, but throughout the world, to know the 
result of the first contest between iron-clads and fortifications. It was 
a small side -wheel steamer of light draft, and we were able to run in 
and out over the bar at will. Just before the signal was given for the 
advance we ran alongside the flag-ship. The sailors were hard at work 
hoisting shot and shell from the hold to the deck. The upper deck was 
bedded with sand-bags, the pilot-house wrapped with iron cable. All the 



THE ATLANTIC COAST. 91 

ft 

light hamper was taken down and stowed away, the iron j^lating slushed 
with grease. 

It was past one o'clock wJien the signal for sailing was displayed from 
the flag-ship, and the Weehaicken, with a raft at her prow, intended to 
remove torpedoes, answered the signal, raised her anchor, and went steadily 
in with the tide, followed by the others. There were no clouds of canvas, 
no beautiful models of marine architecture, none of the stateliness and 
majesty which have marked hundreds of great naval engagements. No 
human beings were in sight — no propelling power visible. 

Straight on the Weehawken moves. The silence is prolonged — it is 
almost painful — the calm before the storm, the hushed stillness before the 
burst of the tornado ! 

There comes a single puff of smoke from Moultrie — one deep reverber- 
ation. The silence is broken — the long months of waiting are over. The 
shot flies across the water, skipping from wave to wave, tossing up fount- 
ains of spray, hopping over the deck of the Weehawken, and rolling along 
the surface with a diminishing ricochet, sinking at last close upon the 
Morris Island beach. Fort Wagner, on Morris Island, continues the 
story, sending a shot which also trips lightly over the deck, and tosses 
up a water-spout far towards Moultrie. The Weehawken, unmindful of 
this j)lay, opens its ports, and sends a fifteen -inch solid shot towards 
Sumter, which, like those that have been hurled towards her, takes a half- 
dozen steps, making for a moment its footprints on the water, and crashes 
against the south-west face of the fort, followed a moment later by its 
eleven-inch companion. The vessel is for a short time enveloped in the 
smoke of its guns. There comes an answer. Moultrie, together with the 
batteries east of it, and towards the inner harbor, bursts in an instant into 
sheets of flame and clouds of suliDhurous smoke. There is one long roll 
of thunder, deep, heavy reverberations and sharp concussions, rattling the 
windows of our steamer. Thus far Sumter has been silent, but now it 
is enveloped with a cloud — thick folds of smoke unrolling like fleeces 
of wool down the wall to the water, then slowly floating away to mingle 
with those rising from the batteries along the shore of Sullivan's Island. 
Then comes a calm, the Confederate gunners wait for the breeze to 
clear away the cloud, that they may obtain a view of the monitor, to 
see if it has not been punched into a sieve, and is disaj^pearing beneath 
the waves. But the Weehawken is there, moving straight on up the 
channel. To her it has been only a handful of peas or pebbles. Some 
have rattled against her turret, some upon her deck, some against her 
sides. Instead of going to the bottom she revolves her turret and fires 



92 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

two shots at Moultrie, moving on the while to gain the south-eastern wall 
of Sumter. 

There she is — the target of probably two hundred and fifty or three 
hundred guns, of the heaviest calibre, at close range, rifled cannon 
throw^ing forged bolts and steel -pointed shot, turned and polished in 
the lathes of English workshops^advancing still, a trial unparalleled in 
history ! 

For fifteen minutes she meets the ordeal alone, but the cliannel found 
to be clear, the Passaic, the MontauTc, and Patapsco follow, closing up 
the line, each coming in range and delivering their fire upon Sumter. At 
twenty minutes past three the four monitors composing the right wing of 
the fleet are all engaged, each pressing on to reach the north-eastern face of 
the fort, where the wall is weakest, each receiving as they arrive at particu- 
lar points a terrible fire, seemingly from all points of the compass — points 
selected by trial and practice, indicated by buoys. Seventy guns a minute 
are fired, followed by a prolonged roar of thunder. The monitors j)ress 
on, nearer and nearer to Sumter, narrowing the distance to one thousand, 
eight hundred, six, five, four hundred yards, and send their fifteen - inch 
shot against the fort with deliberate, effective fire. 

At first the fort and the batteries and Moultrie seem to redouble their 
efforts, but after an hour there is a perceptible diminution of the dis- 
charges from Sumter. I can see tlie increasing pock-marks and discol- 
orations upon the walls, as if there liad been a sudden breaking out of 
cutaneous disease. 

The flag-ship, drawing seventeen feet of water, was obliged to move 
cautiously, feeling her way up the channel. Just as she came within 
range of Moultrie her keel touched bottom ; fearing that she would run 
aground the anchor was let go. Finding the vessel was clear, the admiral 
again moved on, signalling the left wing to press forward to the aid of the 
four already engaged. The New Ironsides kept the main channel, which 
brought her within about one thousand yards of Moultrie and Sumter. 
She fired four guns at Moultrie, and received in return a heavy fire. 
Again she touched bottom, and then turned her bow across the channel 
towards Sumter, firing two guns at Cumming's Point. After this weak 
and ineffectual effort, the tide rapidly ebbing the while, she again got clear, 
but gave up the attempt to advance. The Catshill, Nantucket, Naliant, 
and Keokuk pressed up with all possible speed to aid the other monitors. 

The Keokuk was different in construction from the others — built by a 
wealthy gentleman who had agreed that the crucial test for the acceptance 
of the vessel by the Government should be in action. 



THE ATLANTIC COAST. 93 

She presented a fair mark with her sloping sides and double turrets. 
Her commander, Captain Rhind, although not having entire confidence in 
her invulnerability, was determined to come to close quarters. He was 
not to be outdone hy those who had led the advance. Swifter than they, 
drawing less water, she made haste to get up with the Weehawken. The 
guns which had been trained uj)on the others were brought to bear upon 
her. Her plating was as pine wood to the steel projectiles, flying with 
almost the swiftness of a minie- bullet. Shot which glanced harmlessly 
from the others penetrated her angled sides. Her after-turret was pierced 
in a twinkling, and a two-hundred pound projectile dropped inside. A 
shot crashed into the surgeon's dispensary. The sea with every passing 
wave swept through the shot-holes, and she was forced to retire or go to 
the bottom with all on board. 

The tide was ebbing fast, and the signal for withdrawal was displayed 
by the flag-shijD. It was raised, seemingly, at an inopportune moment, for 
the firing of the fort had sensibly diminished, while that from the moni- 
tors was steady and true. N^ever had there been such a hammering of iron 
and smashing of masonry as during the two and a half hours of the en- 
gagement. 

We ran alongside the Keokuk. A glance at her sides showed how ter- 
rible the fire had been. Her smoke-stack, turrets, sides — all were scarred, 
gashed, pierced through and through. An inspection revealed ninety-four 
shot-marks. There were none below the water-line, but each wave swept 
through the holes on the sides. Only three of her officers and crew were 
wounded, although she had been so badly perforated. 

" All right, nobody seriously hurt, ready for them again !" was the 
hearty resj)onse of Capt. George Rodgers, of the Catskill, as I stepped 
upon the deck of that vessel and grasped the hand of her wide-awake com- 
mander. The vessel had received about thirty shots. One 200-pounder 
had struck the deck, bending but not breaking or penetrating the iron. 
On the sides, on the turret, and on the pilot-house were indentations like 
saucers, but there was no sign of serious damage. 

Going on board the Nahant we found that eleven of her officers and 
crew had received contusions from the flying of bolt-heads in the turret. 
One shot had jammed its lower ridge, interfering with its revolution. She 
had been struck forty times, but the armor was intact. 

The other monitors had each a few bolts started. Four gun-carriao-es 
needed repairs — injured not by the enemy's shot, but by their own re- 
coil. One shot had ripped up the plating of the Patapsco and pierced 
the wood-work beneath. This was the only one, out of the twenty-five 



94: MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

hundred or tliree thousand fired from the forts, wliicli penetrated the mon- 
itors ! 

The New Ironsides liad received thirty balls, all of which had been 
turned by her armor. 

One hundred and fifty-three shots were fired by the fleet, against more 
than twenty-five hundred by the Confederates. The monitors were struck 
in the aggregate about three hundred and fifty times. 

About six thousand pounds of iron were hurled at Fort Sumter during 
the short time the fleet was engaged, and five or six times that amount of 
metal, or thirty thousand pounds, thrown at the fieet. The casualties on 
board the fleet were — none killed ; one mortally, one seriously, and thirteen 
slightly wounded. 

It is now known that the Confederate commander, General Ripley, was 




THE "new ironsides." 

on the point of evacuating the fort when the signal was made for the fleet 
to withdraw, for the wall was badly shattered, and a few more shots would 
have made it a ruin. 

The iron-clads returned to Hilton Head, the expedition was abandoned, 
and Sumter was left to float its flag in deflance of Federal authority. 

The Proclamation of Emancipation will ever be regarded as a great 
historic event in the history of our country, but coincident with it was 
another of great moment — the enlistment of the slaves as soldiers of the 
republic. A few men from the beginning had seen that the time would 
probably come when both the North and the South would enlist the slaves 
in some form. The Confederacy used them to construct the batteries on 
Morris Island for the bombardment of Sumter. Thousands had been em- 
ployed to build the fortiflcations around Richmond, at Fort Donelson, 



THE ATLANTIC COAST. 95 

Yicksburg, and Port Hudson. When the war began the Confederates 
conceived the idea of enlisting, not slaves, but free negroes, and a recruit- 
ing-office was opened in Memj^his.C) In June, 1861, Tennessee passed a 
law for the enlisting of free negroes to do menial work in the military serv- 
ice of the State. The free negroes of N^ew Orleans — fourteen hundred 
of them — were organized into a regiment. The New Orleans Picayune 
said of their review : 

" We must pay a deserved compliment to the companies of free colored 
men, all very well drilled and comfortably uniformed. Most of them, un- 
aided by the administration, have supj)lied themselves with arms, without 
regard to cost or trouble.''^ ) 

A few weeks later, when the Hartford and other vessels of Admiral 
Farragut's fleet appeared at New Orleans, the regiment of free negroes in 
the Confederate service disappeared as swiftly as the dew-drops before the 
sun on a summer morning. The loss of Fort Donelson, the battle of 
Shiloh, and the fall of New Orleans so inflamed the editor of the Confed- 
eracy, a newspaper published in Georgia, that he said : 

" We must flglit the devil with fire, by arming our negroes to fight the 
Yankees. No doubt that in Georgia alone we could pick uj) ten thousand 
negroes that would rejoice in meeting fifteen thousand Yankees in deadly 
conflict. We would be willing almost to risk the fate of the South upon 
such an encounter in the open field."Q 

Yery early in the war the colored people of Boston, New York, and 
Philadelphia declared their willingness to enlist as soldiers, but there was 
a very great prejudice against color throughout the Northern States. The 
degrading influence of slavery had so permeated society that negroes were 
regarded as an inferior creation, who had no natural rights equal to those 
with which white men were endowed. It would be degrading to the 
manhood of a white soldier to stand in the ranks with a negro by his 
side ; such was the feeling. 

The expedition to Port Poyal, in 1861, was commanded by General 
Thomas W. Sherman, who received authority from the Adjutant-general 
of the United States to " employ all persons offering their services for the 
defence of the Union. "(*) lie was succeeded in command by General David 
Hunter, who, in May, 1862, issued orders for the recruiting of the First 
South Carolina Regiment of negroes. The action of General Hunter was 
condemned by a very large proportion of the newspapers of the Northern 
States. Mr. AVickliffe, of Kentucky, offered a resolution in Congress, ask- 
ing for information from the Secretary of War, if a regiment of black 
men, fugitive slaves, had been organized ; whether the War Department 



96 MAKCHING TO VICTORY. 

had authorized such action, and if the negroes had been furnished with 
uniforms and arras. The Secretary of War sent the resolution to General 
Hunter, at Port Royal, who replied that no regiment of " fugitive slaves " 
had been organized, but a fine regiment of persons had been collected, 
whose late masters were " fugitive rebels." Thus read the reply : 

" It is the masters who have, in every instance, been the fugitives, run- 
ning away from loyal slaves as well as loyal soldiers, and whom we have 
only been able partially to see — chiefly their heads over ramparts, or, rifle 
in hand, dodging behind trees in the extreme distance. In the absence 
of any ' fugitive master laws ' the deserted slaves would be wholly with- 
out remedy, had not the crime of treason given them the right to pursue, 
capture, and bring back those persons of whom they had been suddenly 
bereft."(^) 

The letter of General Hunter was read everywhere through the 
Northern States, and gave great satisfaction to those who wished to see 
the negroes marshalled under the Stars and Stripes. General Hunter gave 
freedom papers to all the members of the regiment. 

General Phelps, of Vermont, was in Louisiana, and said to General 
Butler, in command there, that fifty regiments of negroes could be enlist- 
ed, but was informed by that ofiicer that he was to use the negro as a la- 
borer, not as a soldier. 

" I am not willing to become the mere slave-driver you propose, hav- 
ing no qualification that way," was the reply from General Phelps, who 
sent in his resignation. 

A governor of a State had a right to enlist negroes, and on August 4th, 
1862, Governor Sprague, of Phode Island, appealed to the negroes of that 
State to enlist. The tide was rising, and in August General Butler issued 
an appeal to the/'/'^'.e negi^oes of New Orleans — those who had formed the 
regiment under the Confederates, who were mustered into the service of 
the United States — and on the same day President Lincoln authorized the 
enlistment of negroes in South Carolina, making no distinction as to con- 
dition, whether free or slave. 

The enlistment of negroes who had been slaves gave offence to the 
Democratic party, and to some of the officers in the army, who regarded 
the negro as an inferior being. They said that the slaves would murder 
their masters and families. These were the words of the London Times : 

" It means ten thousand domestic tragedies, in which women and chil- 
dren will be the victims."(°) 

I visited Beaufort, South Carolina, and the sea islands, from which the 
planters had all fled, leaving their slaves behind. Colonel T. W. Higgin- 



THE ATLANTIC COAST. 



97 



son, of Boston, gathered anew the members of the First Soutli Carolina 
Regiment on a plantation near Beaufort, which before the war was the 
smnmer home of the rich slave-holders of South Carolina, whose stately 
mansions looked down the beautiful bay — occupied now by their former 
slaves, who had deserted their little cabins and were making themselves at 
home in the parlors and bedchambers of those who had brought about the 
war. I rode out to the camp of the First South Carolina loyal troops 
through old cotton-fields, beneath oaks with wide-spreading branches, over- 




DESERTED KEGRO CABINS. 



laden with jasmine and honeysuckle, and along an avenue bordered by 
magnolias in bloom, filling the air with fragrance, beneath trees from 
whose branches drooped festoons of dark-gray moss, which waved mourn- 
fully in the breeze. 

The regiment was encamped on a plantation owned by a man who had 
been a cruel master, who used to tie up his slaves by the thumbs, their 
arms stretched high above their heads, their toes just touching the ground. 
7 



98 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

I saw the staples in the trunk of a tree, the rings through which the ropes 
were drawn which held them to the whipping-post. Near by was a little 
chapel, with a bell in the belfry. The master and mistress had been re- 
ligious. Every Sunday morning the bell called the slaves to church, to 
listen to the gospel of love, peace, and good-will from a fellow-slave. The 
master and mistress were accustomed to say their prayers in Beaufort ; 
but on the morning when Admiral Dupont's guns were heard at Port 
Royal they suddenly departed, leaving all behind. The whipping was 
ended, the slaves were free, and the able-bodied of them were wearing the 
uniform of the Army of the Republic, with the Stars and Stripes waving 
over them, ready to show their gratitude to President Lincoln and their 
loyalty to the Union. 

So intense was the prejudice on the part of some of the officers against 
the negro, that General Hunter was obliged to arrest one of his brigadier- 
generals, who said that he would rather be defeated in battle than co- 
operate with negro troops.(') The enlistment of the former slaves was a 
turning-point in the history of the war, and in the history of our country, 
which will be manifest as the story of the struggle unfolds. 



NOTES TO CHAPTER V. 

(') Williams, " A History of Negro Troops ia the War of the Rebellion," p. 80. 

Neio Orleans Picayune, Feb. 9, 1862. 

O "Rebellion Record," vol. v., p. 22. 

C) Greeley, "American Conflict," vol. ii., p. 251. 

(*) Executive Document, 37th Congress, 3d S., No. 143. 

O London Times, Feb. 6, 1863. 

O Hunter's Special Order, No. 86. 



IN VIRGINIA. 99 



CHAPTER VL 

IN VIRGINIA. 

T"^HE Array of the Potomac was on the Falmouth hills, opposite Fred- 
-'- ericksbnrg, housed iti huts. All the surrounding forests had disap- 
peared, built into huts, with chimneys of sticks and mud, or burned in the 
stone fireplaces constructed by the soldiers, who also built mud ovens, and 
baked their beans and bread. The winter was severe, the snow deep. 
The soldiers were discouraged. They knew that they had fought brave- 
ly, but that there had been mismanagement and inefficient generalship. 
Homesickness set in and became a disease. General Burnside planned a 
movement up the river to United States Ford. He thouglit that by a 
rapid march he could cross the Rappahannock at that point, and gain a 
position where General Lee would not have the advantage of any strong 
fortifications. 

On January 20th the army moved, but suddenly rain began to fall, and 
before night the artillery and wagons were hub-deep in the mud. Teams 
were doubled ; the drivers whipped their horses and used a great many 
bad words ; the horses tugged in vain ; the soldiers sank to their knees. 
All day long the rain poured in torrents, and beat pitilessly upon them. At 
night they lay down upon the damp ground, with the cold storm drenching 
them. For two days they struggled through the nuid, and then made their 
way back to the log-huts, to be laughed at by the Confederate pickets on 
the other side of the river. The soldiers called it the mud campaign. 

Some of the officers were greatly dissatisfied with General Burnside. 
They said that he was not competent to command a great army. When 
the command was offered him by President Lincoln, General Burnside 
distrusted his own ability. The soldiers had little confidence in his 
judgment, but did not doubt his loyalty. His repeated failures brought 
despondency in the army and throughout the North. Soldiers deserted — 
not to the Confederates, but made their way to Washington, and thence 
to their homes. Mothers and sisters and wives, who longed to see them 
once more, sent them suits of clothing so that they could get away. 

L.ofC. 



100 MARCHING TO VICTOEY. 

General Burnside saw that with the disaffection among the officers he 
could not hope to accomplish anything. Besides, there were spies every- 
where. It never, probably, will be known just who they were, but they 
were in the army, in Washington, in the streets, the hotels, the Depart- 
ments, and in the telegraph-offices. It was discovered that all orders were 
known to the Confederates in a few hours after their delivery. General 
Burnside asked the President to accept his resignation as major-general, 
which Mr. Lincoln would not do. The President remembered his faith- 
ful service in North Carolina, but he relieved him of the command of 
the army, and appointed General Hooker to succeed him, transferring 
General Burnside, with the Ninth Corps, to the Department of the 
Ohio. 

How should General Hooker cure homesickness which had become a 
disease ? Officers and men alike had an intense longing for home. 

When he took command of the army, desertions were at the rate of 
two hundred a day. Two thousand nine hundred and twenty-two officers 
and eighty -two thousand men were reported absent, with or without 
leave ! It was in itself a great army. We are not to think that they 
were all deserters. By far the larger number were absent on leave, but, 
once at home, had not returned. 

" What word of encouragement can you give us ?" asked a company of 
ladies of President Lincoln. 

" I have no word of encouragement for you," he said, " The military 
situation is far from bright, and the country knows it. The fact is, the 
people have not yet made up their minds that we are at war. They have 
not buckled down to the determination to fight this war through. They 
have got it into their heads that they are going to get out of this fix, 
somehow, by strategy. That is the word — strategy. They have no idea 
that the war is going to be carried on by hard fighting ; and no headway 
will be made while this state of mind lasts. 

" There are regiments that have two-thirds of the men absent — a great 
many by desertion, and a great many more on leave granted by company 
officers, which is almost as bad. Tliere is a constant call for more troops, 
and they are sent forward. To fill up the army is like undertaking to 
shovel fleas ; you take up a shovelful, but before you can dump them any- 
where they are gone." 

" Isn't death the penalty of desertion ?" asked a lady. 

" Yes." 

" Wliy not enforce it, then ?" 

" Oh no, you can't do that ! you can't shoot men by the hundred for 



IN VIRGINIA. 103 

deserting. The country would not stand it ; it ought not to stand it. It 
would be barbarous. We must change the condition of things in some 
other way." 

They were plain words. General McClellan had talked about strategy 
and strategic movements, and the people somehow thought that by some 
great, brilliant movement — by getting on the flank or the rear of the Con- 
federate army — General Lee might be manoeuvred out of Fredericksburg, 
and Anally out of Richmond, and that would be the end of the rebellion. 
President Lincoln knew better. General Hooker saw that the first thin^ 
to be done was to cure the homesickness. The surgeons and physicians 
had no medicine in their chests to cure the disease. A sight of home, a 
look into the faces of loved ones, a clasp of the hand, the kiss, the wel- 
come of father, mother, wife, or sister was the only medicine. 

Although so many were absent, the first oi'der which General Hooker 
issued provided that one brigade commander, one field-officer, two line- 
officers of a regiment, and two men out of every hundred might be absent 
at one time, not exceeding ten days to the near States and fifteen days for 
States farther away. 

" You have ruined the army. They will go from Dan to Beersheba. 
You never will get them back again," was the despatch telegrajjhed by 
President Lincoln when he heard of it. 

" Let me try it for three weeks," replied General Hooker. 

The President consented. The soldiers were informed that if they did 
not return on the day fixed they would be court-martialed. If they did 
not return, their regiment could have no more furloughs. It touched 
their honor. If they did not return, none of their comrades could go 
home. Officers had been running up to Washington. The hotels were 
full of those who ought to have been at Falmouth. 

" Officers visiting Washington without permission will be dismissed 
the service," was the order of the War Department. 

During the bright winter days the soldiers went through their drills 
and manoeuvres. The bands played stirring tunes. The inspector kept 
close watch of their arms and equipments and clothing. The surgeons 
were careful of the health of the army. The men on furlough returned 
with bi'ight faces. Stragglers were brought back to their regiments. 
The army, instead of dwindling, became larger day by day. Homesick- 
ness disappeared. Wherever General Hooker rode he was welcomed with 
a cheer. 

Stragglers in an army, when asked what division, brigade, or regiment 
they belonged to, usually gave a false answer. To correct the evil Gen- 



104: MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

eral Hooker devised a system of badges by wliicli stragglers could be de- 
tected, and which enabled soldiers when on the march or in tlie battle to 
see where their brigade, division, and corps were. The division badges 
were red for the First Division, white for the Second, blue for the Tliird. 
The badge of the First Corps was a sphere ; of the Second, a clover-leaf ; 
the Third, a lozenge ; Fifth, a Maltese cross ; Sixth, a cross ; Eleventh, a 
crescent ; Twelfth, a star. It was a device of mucli value, for a great 
army when on the march l)ecomes more or less confused. Before their 
adoption, soldiers who dropj^ed out of the line had great difficulty in find- 
ing tlieir regiments ; but with badges on coats, flags, and wagons, every 
soldier could soon find his regiment. 

The cavalry of tlie Army of the Potomac had been of little account. 
General Hooker saw, and the Government saw, that tlie cavalry must be 
increased ; that men on horseback are the "eyes of the army," seeing what 
the enemy is doing or about to do. New regiments were organized, the 
horses exercised, and the men drilled. 

General Averill, commanding a division, was encamped at Hartwood 
Church. There came a day when Fitz-Hugh Lee, commanding a Con- 
federate division of cavalry, appeared suddenly north of the river and fell 
upon the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry, which was out on picket — Gen- 
eral Averill's own regiment. In the skirmish eighty Union men were 
killed, wounded, and taken prisoners, while of the Confederates twenty 
w^ere killed and wounded, and forty prisoners taken. The two command- 
ers had been classmates at West Point. Wlien the Confederates retreated 
Fitz-Hugh Lee left a surgeon with his wounded and a note to General 
Averill. Thus it read : 

" My dear Averill, — I wish you would put up your sword and leave 
my State and go home. You ride a good horse ; I ride a better. Yours 
can beat mine running. Send me over a bag of coffee. Fitz." 

There was a taunt and a challenge in the note. 

" I would like an opportunity to cross the river and try swords with 
the Confederates," said General Averill to General Hooker. 

" You shall have the opportunity." 

Early in the morning of March 17th the bugle sounded the call, and 
the Union cavalrymen leaped into tlieir saddles. There were five regi- 
ments in the division. Tlie First Brigade was commanded by Colonel 
Mcintosh — the Third and Sixteenth Pennsylvania, two squadrons of the 
Fourth Pennsylvania, and the Sixth New York Battery. 

The Second Brigade was commanded by Colonel Duffie — the First 



IN VIRGINIA. 



107 



Khode Island, Fourth Xew York, and Sixth Ohio. There were detach- 
ments from the First and Fifth United States Kegiilars. At daylight the 
division was on its way towards Kelley's Ford. They found the road 



^■^^ 




GEKERAL HOOKER. 



leading to the river blocked with fallen trees, but the pioneers cleared the 
way with their axes, the Fourth New York keeping up at the same time 
a lively fire upon the Confederates on the other bank. 

The Fourth Rhode Island charged to the bank of the river, to be 



108 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

forced back, but, rallying with a cheer, driving their spurs into the flanks 
of their horses, they went across the stream, up the other bank, and capt- 
ured the astonished Confederates, who had dismounted, and were firing 
their carbines from an old mill-race. 

The water was so deep in the river that it came into the caissons, and 
the cannon cartridges had to be taken out, put in the nose-bags of the 
liorses, and thus carried to the southern shore. 

The bugles sounded, and the division moved slowly on in order of bat- 
tle ; for not far away was the whole of Fitz-Hugh Lee's command — the 
First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Yirginia — soldiers who prided 
themselves on being fearless riders, and who had formed in line of battle, 
and were advancing. General Averill halted in a belt of woods border- 
ing a field. Fitz-Hugh Lee did the same upon the opposite side of the 
field. The lines were straightened, and both came out into the cleared 
land. General Lee made a movement to turn Averill's right, but was 
stopped by the artillery. He moved to charge the left, but was met by 
Duffie's brigade and driven. Lee's whole line fell back, followed by Av- 
erill. Again the Confederates advanced, but again were turned back by 
the Third Pennsylvania and Fifth Regulars. When the Confederates 
retreated the Union troops poured in a volley. Men rolled from their 
saddles, and their horses ran wildly over the field. 

The sun was going down. General Averill had accomplished what he 
came for — a disciplining of his men in battle. He had paid his compli- 
ments to his old classmate, and gave orders to recross the river, which was 
rapidly rising from rains in the mountains. 

Many of the men were badly wounded, but he made them comfortable, 
left a surgeon in charge of them and a bag of coffee, with this note to 
his old classmate : 

"Dear Fitz, — Here's your coffee. Here's your visit. How do you 
like it ? How's that horse ? Averill " 

These men were old-time friends. War had not made them personal 
enemies. They were fighting for great principles — one for the Confed- 
eracy, the other for the Union. Averill returned well satisfied with the 
behavior of the troops. It was the first real cavalry battle of the Army 
of the Potomac. 

While General Hooker was getting the Union army under discipline and 
curing the homesickness. General Lee was filling up his army with new 
conscripts. The Confederate Government did not organize new regiments, 



IN VIRGINIA. 109 

but put new men into the ranks with soldiers who had been in a score of 
battles. The new men soon became as brave and stead}^ as they. It was 
a much better plan than that adopted by the Union Government — the 
raising of new regiments. 

Day and night the Tredegar Ironworks at Richmond were blazing — 
casting cannon, shot, and shell. Carpenters were making cannon -car- 
riages. Every steamer running the blockade into Wilmington or Charles- 
ton brought arms and supplies from England. 

When General Lee, in February, learned through his spies that Gen- 
eral Hooker was allowing his soldiers to go home, he rightly surmised that 
no immediate movement would be attempted by the Army of the Poto- 
mac. The Confederate Government determined to improve the opportu- 
nity to sweep the Union troops in Eastern Virginia and North Carolina 
into the sea. They would conceal their real design. They sent D. H. 
Hill to l^Torth Carolina. The Governor called out the militia. He was to 
make a demonstration against General Foster, in command at Kewbern, 
who in turn would be compelled to ask General Keyes, at Norfolk, to 
send him reinforcements, which would weaken the force at Suffolk and 
Norfolk. 

While this was going on, Hood's, Pickett's, and Anderson's divisions, 
commanded by Longstreet, were to be transferred by railroad to Suffolk, 
carry that position, and then push on to Norfolk. Hill was to join 
his troops to Longstreet's, and the united force would make clean work. 
Once more masters of Norfolk, they would make it uncomfortable for 
the Union fleet off Fortress Monroe, and would again close James Piver. 

General Foster, to strengthen his position at Newbern, was construct- 
ing Fort Anderson, on the banks of the Neuse River. On March 13th 
General Pettigrew came down the road through the woods with two bri- 
gades of North Carolina trooj^s. There was only a small garrison in the 
fort, but there were two gunboats in the river — the Hunclibach and Ilet- 
zel — which opened fire, and the Confederates hastily retreated. 

Twenty miles north of Newbern is the little town of Washington, on 
Tar River, which General Hill attacked, to caj)ture the supplies stored 
there for the Union gunboats. It was occupied only by a small garrison. 
There were two gunboats in the river. General Hill planted his cannon 
on the north bank, to prevent any more vessels from arriving ; but the 
Ceres ran past the batteries and brought a supply of ammunition. Foster 
came with two brigades on transports, but could not land. General Spi- 
nola started from Newbern, but was confronted by the Confederate cav- 
alry at Blount's Mills, and turned back. General Foster was making 



110 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

arrangements for a combined attack upon Hill, when suddenly not a Con- 
federate soldier was to be seen, for Hill was on his way northward to join 
Longstreet in his attack upon Suffolk, He had made General Foster 
believe that he had a large force — that Longstreet was on his way to join 
him. General Foster had sent for reinforcements. He was promised ten 
thousand men ; three thousand were to be sent to him from Suffolk by 
General Peck, in command at that point. 

We come to April 10th. The troops from General Peck's command 
are on the cars. In a few minutes they would be on their way to Nor- 
folk, where transports were waiting to take them to North Carolina. 

Just before the train started, General Peck received a despatch from 
General Viele at Norfolk, whose scouts had captured a Confederate mail. 
One of the letters stated that General Longstreet had from forty thou- 
sand to sixty thousand men, and that General Hill from North Carolina 
was on his way to join him. General Peck, instead of sending the three 
thousand troops to Norfolk, ordered them to remain. 

General Longstreet was twenty miles away, west of Blackwater River, 
which runs south to Albemarle Sound. Opening your maps, you will see 
that the broad estuary of James River at the entrance of Chesapeake Bay 
is called Hampton Roads, where the fight took place between the Merri- 
mac Siud 3Ionitor. Norfolk is on Elizabeth River; Suffolk on Nansemond 
River, which rises in the dark and gloomy forests of Dismal Swamp, the 
haunt of runaway slaves before the war — 

"Away to the Dismal Swamp he speeds — 
His path is rugged and sore, 
Through tangled juniper, beds of reeds. 
Through many a fen where the serpent feeds, 
And man never stood before." 

The country is low between the James River and the Dismal Swamp. 
There are sand-knolls, swamps, thickets, groves of cedar, pine, and oak. 
We may start from James River and sail up a wide estuary four miles. 
This is called the Lower Nansemond. A stream — the Western Branch — 
comes in here, and the land at the junction is called Hill's Point. Large 
vessels can reach this point, but here the shallows begin, and only light- 
draught vessels can go up to Suffolk. From Hill's Point the stream is 
narrow and winding. From Suffolk the Jericho Canal leads south to the 
Dismal Swamp. The Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad crosses the Nanse- 
mond at Suffolk, turns north-east, skirts the northern edge of the Dismal 
Swamp, and runs to Norfolk, 

The line which General Peck must defend extended from Hill's Point 



IN VIRGINIA. Ill 

south and east along the river, and to the swamp, a distance of fifteen 
miles. A road comes from North Carolina, east of the swamp, to Nor- 
folk, and he sent his cavalry thirty miles away — to South Mills — to hold 
this backdoor ; for if he did not guard it, a Confederate force might gain 
his rear, turn his position, and seize Norfolk. 

It was a great prize which Longstreet hoped to gain. If he could win 
victory he would capture a great pile of railroad iron stored at Norfolk — 
enough to lay sixty miles of track. The Confederates were sadly in need 
of it, for the rails of the I'oads were fast wearing out, and the South had 
no iron-mills and few workers in iron. He would capture a large number 
of heavy guns and a vast amount of naval supplies. If he could recapt- 
ure Norfolk he would greatly embarrass the fleet blockading the Chesa- 
peake. Then he would turn south, and make quick work in clearing 
North Carolina. 

" Three thousand troops are to leave for North Carolina," was the 
word which Longstreet received from his spies. He knew all that was 
going on in the Union lines. General Hill had made such a demonstra- 
tion at Newbern and "Washington that the Union oflicers thought North 
Carolina was the point of attack. The time had come for him to strike 
the blow. He crossed the Blackwater April 12th. General Hood, march- 
ing on the South Quay road, captured some of the Union cavalry pickets, 
but others escaped to give the alarm. The other divisions marched on 
other roads — thirty thousand strong — converging towards Suffolk, with 
boats and material for laying bridges across the Upper Nansemond. An- 
derson's and Pickett's divisions came from the south. French's division 
advanced on the Somerton road ; Hood's along the railroad, reaching 
Suffolk at noon April 13th. 

General Peck's headquarters were on the bank of the Jericho Canal. 
He appointed General Getty commander between Suffolk and Hill's Point. 
In the river were several small gunboats — Lieutenant Lamson commanded 
those on the Upper, Lieutenant Cushing those on the Lower Nansemond. 
General Peck had fifteen thousand men and a large number of heavy can- 
non in position behind his fifteen miles of breastworks — so many and so 
advantageously placed that Longstreet saw that, instead of surprising Peck, 
he had serious work before him. Less prudent commanders would have 
charged the Union fortifications, but would have seen their troops cut to 
pieces. With thirty thousand men he hoped to turn the position ; but he 
must get rid of the gunboats before he could lay his bridge. Then he 
\vould cross below the Union fortifications, and turn Peck's right fiank. 
He would make a feint of attacking with Anderson and Pickett at Suf- 



112 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

folk, while Hood and French forced the passage of the river at Hill's 
Point. 

His engineers selected places for the batteries at the bends of the river, 
and all through the night the Confederate soldiers were at work with 
spades and axes, building breastworks. 

Morning dawned, and when the Union gunboats steamed along the 
river, the Confederate cannon suddenly sent solid shot and shells into the 
Mount Washington^ disabling the engine. Lieutenant Cashing, who was 
on the Lower Kansemond River, hastened up with the Barney and Step- 
jping Stones. The Confederate sharp-shooters concealed along the shore 
opened lire from the thickets, picking off the sailors. For four hours 
the gunboats and batteries kept up the cannonade, when the rising of 
the tide floated the Mount WasJibigton down -stream. The three gun- 
boats were badly damaged. 

General Longstreet erected a battery on the farm of Mr. Nafleet. He 
intended to build a bridge at that point, but the Union soldiers soon had a 
battery on the opposite shore. The gunboats Alert and C(Bur de Lion 
came up the river ; but the pilots were killed by the Confederates, and the 
boats riddled by cannon-balls. 

On the west bank of the river, at Hill's Point, was a fort built by the 
Confederates in 1862, in which they now placed five cannon. General 
Getty resolved to capture it. He selected six companies of the Eighth 
Connecticut and six of the Eighty-ninth New York, in all two hundred 
and sixty men, commanded by Colonel Ward. They went on board the 
Stepping Stones, where a canvas screen drawn above the bulwarks of the 
vessel completely concealed them. 

There is a bluff on the west bank near the Confederate cannon, behind 
which the boat would be hid for a moment from the Confederates. 

"Make believe that you intend to run past the battery ; but when you 
reach the shelter of the bluff, run the boat ashore, leap out, make a rush, 
and capture the guns," were General Getty's orders t6 Colonel Ward. 

The Stepping Stones steams up the river. The Confederate artillery- 
men spring to their guns. She reaches the shelter of the bluff — is lost to 
sight ; but the moment she comes in view the cannon will flame. But 
she does not come in view. The pilot has turned suddenly, laid her side 
to the shore, and three hundred men in a twinkling are swarming over her 
sides and rushing up the bank. 

The sailors run their howitzers ashore, drag them up the bank, and 
wheel them into position. The Confederates are astounded. The fight is 
quickly over. 



IN VIRGINIA. 113 

" We surrender !" shout tlie Confederates ; and one hundred and sixty- 
one give themselves up. Other troops cross, and a strong garrison holds 
the fort. 

General Longstreet was surprised. In a moment all his plans had 
been overturned. He saw that he must abandon all thoughts of crossing 
bj a bridge. To capture the Union line he must begin a regular siege — 
the building of strong earthworks, mounting heavj guns, etc. ; all of which 
would require time. lie was surprised at the audacity of the Union 
troops. A party crossed the Lower Nansemond, marched out three miles, 
and drove the Confederate cavalry. 

Two days later General Corcoran, with a brigade, made a sortie on 
the Edenton Road, below Suffolk, and drove the Confederates into their 
works. 

Every day the batteries were thundering; but the Union guns were 
larger and heavier than Longstreet's, and had the advantage. But heavy 
guns came from Richmond, and on the last day of April were ready to 
open lire. 

General Hill's troops were arriving (ten thousand men) from North 
Carolina, giving Longstreet forty thousand. With this reinforcement he 
hoped to make a successful assault. 

He waited till night, and then, instead of attacking, withdrew his heavy 
guns, packed up his camp, and started his long lines of wagons. Daylight 
came. May 3d, and the Union pickets discovered that the Confederate 
breastworks, instead of swarming with troops, were silent and deserted. 
Longstreet was hastening northward, summoned by General Lee, who was 
fighting a great battle at Chancellorsville. 

The movement of Hill in North Carolina, the expenditure of sending 
Longstreet's troops to Suffolk and bringing them back ; all the marching, 
digging, building batteries, waste and expense, and a loss of fifteen hundred 
men in the skirmishes, had resulted in failure. Nothing had been gained. 
Quite likely there would have been a far different result if General Yiele 
had not captured the man with the Confederate mail ; for, with three 
thousand of his best troops gone. General Peck would have found it diffi- 
cult to hold his line — fifteen miles long — and it seems probable that Long- 
street would have broken through. As it was, nothing was gained, but 
much lost, by the Confederates. 



114 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



CHAPTER VII. 

COTTON FAMINE IN ENGLAND. 

\TTHEN the great slave-holders planned the disruption of the Union 
* ' and the building up of a Confederacy with slavery for its corner- 
stone, they fully believed that the whole world would be compelled to 
acknowledge its power. Several years before the breaking out of the war 
Mr. Hammond, of South Carolina, declared in the Senate of the United 
States that " cotton was king," for over no other lands were wafted such 
balmy winds laden with moisture as those which floated inland from the 
Gulf of Mexico. In no other fields could be found cotton-plants of such 
luxuriant growth as those wliitening the plantations of the islands off the 
coast of South Carolina and Georgia, along the coast of Alabama, pro- 
ducing every year nearly five million bales. The States of South Caro- 
lina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas were the world's 
cotton-garden. The world demanded cotton, and the Gulf States were 
so endowed by Nature that they, and they alone, could supply the demand. 
Nearly two-thirds of all the cotton used was produced in those States. In 
England nearly forty million spindles were whirling, and hundreds of 
thousands of men, women and children earning their daily bread in spin- 
ning, carding, and weaving cotton. In midwinter the Mississippi, at New 
Orleans, bore upon its tide a great fleet of ships laden with the raw mate- 
rial, which alone could keep the great multitude in England from starv- 
ing, which enriched ship-owner, manufacturer, and merchant. " England," 
said Jefferson Davis, " never will allow our great staple, cotton, to be 
dammed up within our limits. She will aid us " (" Drum-beat of the Na- 
tion," p. 39). This was the great mistake of those who established a Con-' 
federacy with slaves and cotton the foundation materials of the structure. 
The men who seceded from the Union were ignorant of the great eco- 
nomic principles governing the commerce of the world. Believing that 
slavery was a beneficent institution ordained by Almighty God, they did 
not comprehend the fact that they were attempting to establish a nation 



COTTON FAMINE IN ENGLAND. 



115 




SHIPPING COTTON TO ENGLAND BEFORE THE WAR. 



upon a system which, during the middle period of tlie century, had be- 
come repugnant to the moral sense of the world. Thus it came about 
that they were confidently expecting recognition by England and France. 
There were sad scenes in Great Britain. The supply of raw cotton 
was exhausted. No longer was there a throbbing of steam-engines. The 
machinery of the cotton-mills was motionless — no spindles whirling, no shut- 
tles flying. Hundreds of thousands were out of employment. Seek work 
where they might, there was none for them. Starvation stared them in 
the face, and famine, with all its horrors, confronted them, and yet no mur- 
mur or complaint fell from their lips. The shillings they had saved by 
thrift and industry disappeared ; the furniture of the humble home — the 
chair, the table, the clock upon the mantle — the Sunday coat, the best 
gown, the little gold-washed ornament, were taken to the pawn-shop, until 
the pawnbroker had no place for articles, nor money to give for them. 
When all was gone they did not beg for charity. There were no threats 
of violence, no attempt to help themselves from the stores of the rich, 
but with resignation like that of the martyr at the stake, with conn- 



116 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

tenance illumined by the light of heaven, thej calmly looked death in 
the face. 

Beautiful picture of the ages ! When the hunger was keenest, when 
loved ones were pining away, when children were crying for bread, when 
the last crumbs had gone, in humble homes, stripped of all furniture, 
these men and women, kneeling upon bare floors, lifted up their prayers 
to God, beseeching success to the men who were flghting to free the 
slave ! For, by a heaven-born instinct they comprehended that the Stars 
and Stripes was the emblem of the world's best hope ; that the men who 
were upholding that flag were fighting a battle for the poor and lowly of 
every land. 

This the portrayal of the situation by the London Illustrated News : 
" Hundreds of thousands, accustomed to win a comfortable livelihood 
by this honest industry, find themselves suddenly bereft of the raw mate- 
rial on which their skill and labor had been before employed. The catas- 
trophe is as complete for the time being as if an earthquake had swallowed 
up the mills in which they were accustomed to earn their bread. Their 
own glowing hearths, their cherished household ornaments, the pleasant 
tilings about them which they toiled so long and patiently to acquire — 
all that administered to the comfort and attractiveness of their homes — all 
are gone ; desolation has swept over them all, and nothing is left them 
but life, without the means of satisfying it, and brave hearts that bleed 
inwardly but make no complaint. The last-mentioned feature of the dis- 
tress is the most touching of all. Most of us can well imagine the an- 
guish which has wrung their souls as, hoping to avert the want, and look- 
ing with strained sight into the dim and dreary future for better times, 
they have surrendered one by one the articles which constituted their 
modest wealth. We can realize to some extent tlie intense anxiety with 
which they watched the rising tide of misery, the j^angs which they have 
felt in the progress of the gradual but sure approach of that sharp penury 
which, in the case of the great majority of them, has already worn them 
to the bone. Savage winter, following close ujDon the heels of want and 
fever, is crouched and waiting to make prey of physical weakness. 

" The scene does not need another touch of misery to deepen its pa- 
thos ; but if it were possible to look upon it with callous feelings, the sub- 
lime pathos of the sufferings would make indifference impossible. There 
has been nothing like it in modern times. The unassuming manliness, the 
calm and intelligent fortitude, the unostentatious resignation, the marvel- 
lous abstention from all bitterness of utterance, and the cheerful acquies- 
cence in the policy of right which the present distress has elicited, make 



COTTON FAMINE IN ENGLAND. 119 

such an appeal to English hearts for sympathy and help as never before, 
perhaps, was heard." 

In Manchester, with a population of a little more than three hundred 
thousand, there were thirty-four thousand starving people. In other cot- 
ton manufacturing cities the distress was equally great. Soup-houses were 
established, great kettles brought into use, industries provided, contribu- 
tions gathered, boards for distribution of food and clothing organized, with 
Lord Palmerston, Prime-minister, at the head. Contributions came from 
India, China, Australia, and Canada. Newspapers were provided, so that 
the men and women who could get no work might at least learn what 
was going on in the world. With eager eyes they read every item of 
news concerning the great struggle between Freedom and Slavery in the 
Western World. 

This the pen-picture from the correspondent of the Neios : 

" The people, as a rule, had rather starve than ask relief. I have made 
my observations in families where death was within a few stages, waiting 
to close the hard but unsuccessful struggle for life. One cannot with- 
stand the intense pleading of silent want. Halfpence will drop into little 
famished hands and shillings into the palms of mothers, who weep over 
the sufferings of their children, from whose cheeks the roses have long 
since fled, but they never ask for charity." 

This the record of earnings in the cotton mills : Betty Taylor earned 
in two weeks two shillings and elevenpence(') — less than seventy-five 
cents for twelve days. Susannah Fletcher in two weeks earned one shil- 
ling and sevenpence — about thirty-six cents — going into the mill at eight 
o'clock and staying till half-past five. 

Nearly six hundred thousand peopleC*) were receiving relief. In the 
cotton manufacturing districts only one-third were working on full time. 
One hundred and sixty thousand operatives were working half time, while 
two hundred and twenty-eight thousand could find no work. They were 
wholly dependent on charity. 

Notwithstanding starvation stared them in the face, notwithstanding 
nearly all the newspapers of England, the lords, dukes, nobles, and nearly 
all the members of Parliament sympathized with the South, these fam- 
ishing toilers prayed for the success of the North. 

On the evening of the last day of the year the great town-hall of Man- 
chester, England, was filled with the working men and women of that 
city, many of whom had gone hungry through the day because "King 
Cotton " had inaugurated a war in the United States for the establishment 
of a slave empire. The mayor of the city presided. They had assembled 



120 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

for the purpose of sending a letter to President Lincoln, thanking him for 
the Proclamation of Emancipation, which was to go into effect at the hour 
of midnight. These their words : 

"Heartily do we congratulate you and your country on this hu- 
mane and righteous course. We assure you that you and your country 
cannot now stop short of a complete uprooting of slavery. . . . We im- 
plore you for your own honor and welfare not to faint in your providen- 
tial mission. Leave no root of bitterness to spring up and work fresh 
misery to your children. . . . Our interests are identified with yours. We 
are truly one people, though locally separate ; and if you have any ill- 
wishers here, be assured they are those who oppose liberty at home. . . . 
Accept our high admiration of your firmness in upholding the proclama- 
tion of freedom." 

The steamship which brought this address across the Atlantic passed 
a gallant new ship, built at Quincy, Massachusetts, the George Griswold, 
with all sails set, bound from New York to Liverpool. This her cargo : 
One hundred barrels of pork, fifty barrels of beef, one hundred and two 
boxes of bacon, three tierces and two bags of rice, one hundred and seven 
bags and five hundred barrels of corn, one hundred and twenty-five bar- 
rels and four hundred and fifteen boxes of bread, fourteen thousand seven 
hundred and thirty-six barrels of flour. 

The ship was full, and the cargo was valued at $108,000 — all con- 
tributed by the people of New York, Philadelphia, and other cities, for 
the starving of Lancashire : the committee of relief had still thirty-five 
thousand dollars left. The George Griswold went down the harbor and 
out through the Narrows on January 10th, with all her flags flying, to 
be followed, on the 19th, by the bark Achilles, from Philadelphia, on 
their errands of mercy in the spirit of that Christmas song first chanted 
on earth by the angels of God above the green pastures of Bethlehem — 
" Peace on earth, good will to men." 

On the 9th of February, the George Griswold reached Liverpool, sail- 
ing up past the ship -yards of the Messrs. Laird, whence the Florida 
and the Alabama had sailed to begin their work of destruction. The] 
people of Liverpool had heard of the departure of the vessel from New 
York, and the commander of the fort at the entrance of the harbor wel- 
comed her with a salute. A tug took the Griswold in tow, and that vessel, 
decorated by her captain with the flags of all nations, laden with food for 
the famishing, freely given, went on to her dock amid the swinging of 
hats and the hurrahs of a multitude of the workingmen of Liverpool. 

At that same hour the Lord-mnyor of London and his invited guests 



COTTON FAMINE IN ENGLAND. 123 

were sitting down to a banquet, where the tables were loaded witli the 
roast beef of Old England and the delicacies of every land, with champagne, 
sherry, and burgundy sparkling in goblets, with flowers perfuming the air. 
The guests were two hundred and fifty — lords, members of Parliament, 
officers of the army and navy, including Mr. Mason, of Virginia, author 
of the P\igitive Slave Law, Minister of the Slave Confederacy, impatiently 
waiting for its recognition by the British Government. The lord-mayor 
thought that so distinguished a gentleman should be honored with a toast. 

" My lord-mayor, my lady-mayoress, my lords, ladies, and gentlemen," 
said Mr. Mason, " I am a stranger among you, or rather I was a stranger ; 
but I have learned since I came to London that men of English blood 
from my own Southern land are not strangers among j^ou [cheers]. I 
speak this from my heart [cheers], for I have been by every circle in Eng- 
land, and by every class of society, a welcomed and honored guest [cheers]. 
The day will come — it is not far off — when the relationship between my 
government, now in its infant fortune, and yours will be one of close and 
intimate relations " [great cheering]. 

" Mr. Mason is right in saying that the Confederacy will at length be 
welcomed into the family of nations," said the Saturday Review in its 
next issue. 

The London Times of the next morning had the report of the banquet 
and room for many editorials upon various subjects, but never any space 
for a recognition of the generous gift of the people of the United States 
to the famishing of England. 

In its news colunms of that morning is the reply of Abraham Lincoln 
to the workingmen of Manchester. " • • • It has been studiously repre- 
sented," wrote Mr. Lincoln, " that the attempt to overthrow this govern- 
ment [United States], which was built on human rights, and to substitute 
for it one which should exclusively rest on the basis of human slavery, 
was likely to obtain favor in Europe. Through the action of our dis- 
loyal citizens the workingmen of Europe have been subjected to a severe 
trial. I cannot but regard your decisive utterance upon the question 
as an instance of sublime Christian heroism which has not been surpassed 
in any age or countr3^ It is indeed an energetic and inspiring assur- 
ance of the power of truth, and the ultimate and univ^ersal triumph of 
justice, humanity and freedom." 

"We are not to think that all of the people of Great Britain sided with 
the South. On the contrary, meetings were held in nearly all the large 
cities and towns by those whose sympathies were with the ISTorth. Many 
of the Dissenting clergy labored with great zeal to arouse public senti- 



124 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

ment in favor of the Proclamation of Emancipation. An immense meet- 
ing was held in Exeter Hall, London. 

On the evening of February 12th, while the people of England were 
reading the letter of Abraham Lincoln to the workingmen of Manchester, 
while the thousands of barrels of flour, the beef, pork, bread, and bacon 
were being transported from Liverpool to that city and the other manu- 
facturing towns of Lancashire, the Florida was falling in with the Jacob 
Bell, one of the finest ships that ever sailed the seas, loaded with tea from 
China: nine thousand chests — owned by English merchants, insured in 
English companies — the ship and cargo valued at one million five hun- 
dred thousand dollars. But the ship is American built. The mechanics 
of the United States hewed the stalwart timbers, fashioned mast and spar, 
and wove the sails and spun the ropes. Free labor constructed the noble 
craft, and the government built on slave labor, toasted by the Lord-mayor 
of London, cheered by the nobles, lords, and members of Parliament, de- 
crees that the stately craft shall be given to the flames. At that hour the 
Alabama is steering southward across the equator, to place herself in the 
track of the great fleet of tea -ships doubling the Cape of Good Hope, 
thence sailing onward to the China Seas, beyond the reach of any war- 
ship of the United States, to light up the sea with burning vessels. On 
that same evening hour the great ship - constructors, the Lairds, one of 
them a member of Parliament, had contracts in hand for the construction 
of formidable iron-clads, intended for the Confederate service, with which 
the blockading fleets of Charleston and Wilmington were to be scattered 
to the winds, or sent to the bottom of the sea. 



NOTES TO CHAPTER VII. 

(') London Times, February 4, 1863. 
Idem, February 5, 1863. 



BATTLE OF CHANCELLOKSVILLE. 127 



CHAPTER YIIL 

BATTLE OF CHANCELLOKSVILLE. 

ALL tlirongli the winter the Confederate soldiers and slaves were build- 
- ing forts and breastworks along the Rappahannock from Banks's 
Ford np-stream a distance of twenty-five miles. General Hotehkiss, Gen- 
eral Lee's engineer, thus speaks of what was done : " No time, labor, nor 
skill was spared, and when completed an almost impregnable barrier was 
presented to the i3rogress of the Federal army throughout the whole dis- 
tance. Behind these works the Confederate army was as secure from at- 
tack in front as Wellington at Torres Yedras. In addition, masked bat- 
teries were placed in commanding positions where there was a possibility 
of the Union army attempting to cross. General Judson concealed near 
the crossings artillery which might be brought into use instantly, but the 
positions of which could not be suspected." 

It was a great problem which General Hooker had to solve. He could 
not do it by mathematics. He could not sit still forever at Falmouth. He 
must o'o somewhere. He must make a movement in some direction. He 
could not cross at Fredericksburg and attempt to carry the heights, where 
Burnside lost so many gallant men in a fruitless endeavor. The Confed- 
erate army was there in a position stronger than ever. General Lee's spies 
knew every movement and plan. The first possible crossing-place above 
Fredericksburg was at Banks's Ford, six miles up-stream. The next w^as at 
United States Ford, seven miles above Banks's. To reach this ford a road 
must be constructed for the artillery and wagons. General Lee had con- 
structed intrenchments, and posted troops at both fords. Just above the 
United States Ford the Rapidan pours its flood into the Rappahannock. 
If General Hooker were to undertake a flank movement above this point 
he must cross two streams. The Rappahannock comes down from the 
north-west, the Rapidan from the west. It was so improbable that Gen- 
eral Hooker would cross two streams and attempt to gain his rear that 
General Lee had few troops guarding the Rapidan. 

" My army is at the bottom of a well, and the enemy holds the top," 



128 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

wrote General Hooker to General Peck, who was at Suffolk, holding that 
place against Longstreet. How should he get ont of the well? That was 
the one question whicli General Hooker pondered day and niglit. He 
kept his thoughts to himself. Whatever they were no one knew — not 
even his most trusted corps commanders or engineers. No spy could get 
at any plan, yet he had a plan. He knew that the Confederate cavalry 
in the West had done great damage in rear of Buell and Rosecrans. 
Why could not tlie Union cavalry do equal damage in rear of Lee ? He 
appointed General Stoneman to command an expedition to go up the 
Rappahannock, cross, move rapidly south, getting in Lee's rear, destroy 
the railroad to Richmond, attack trains, cut off all parties sent in pursuit, 
and commit all possible havoc. 

General Stoneman started on the 13th of April. He crossed the river 
at Rappahannock Station ; but it was raining in the mountains. The river 
was rising, the mud growing deeper. He saw that he could not go on, and 
recrossed the river, pitching his tents upon the northern bank. The plan 
which General Hooker thought would be productive of confusion in the 
Confederate army had failed. He must wait for fair weather and diy 
roads, and must think of some other plan. 

. In war it is of the utmost importance to deceive the enemy when a 
movement is to be made. The great French general, Jomini, laid down 
this rule : " If you are to cross a river in face of an enemy, you must 
deceive him as to the place. False attacks must be made near the real 
ones, to divide the attention and means of the enemy." 

While the cavalry were pitching their tents on the bank of the Rappa- 
hannock, twenty -live miles up-stream. General Doubleday, commanding 
the First Corps, marched down-stream to Port Conway, a little hamlet op- 
posite Port Royal. He had a long train of pontoons. The Confederate 
pickets guarding the river could see the wagons winding over the hills, 
and catch a glimpse of long lines of troops and artillery trains. The First 
Corps at night kindled fires, not only for each regiment, but enough for 
half the army, and the Confederates could see the glimmering lights over 
a large stretch of country. 

General Doubleday planted his artillery. His soldiers cut logs the 
length of a cannon, mounted them on the forward wheels of baggage- 
wagons, and placed them behind breastworks. The Confederate pickets 
reported that an immense number of guns were in position. The Twenty- 
fourth Michigan laid the pontoons and crossed the river. General Double- 
day acted his part so well tliat General Lee ordered Stonewall Jackson to 
move down towards Port Royal. 



BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE. 129 

An aide-de-camp handed an order to General Howard, commanding 
the Eleventh Corps, on the evening of April 26tli, and another to General 
Slocum, commanding the Twelfth Corps. They were confidential orders, 
directing them to march at daylight the next morning. 

The troops moved their encampment at the appointed hour, General 
Howard leading, and the next afternoon reached Kelley's Ford, twenty- 
eight miles from the starting. A part of General Bushbeck's brigade 
crossed the Rappahannock in boats, and drove away the few Confederates 
guarding the ford. 

At ten o'clock in the evening the army began to cross. The troops 
pushed on to the Rapidan, crossing it at Germania Ford, coming suddenly 
upon the Confederates, who were building a bridge, and who ran into a 
mill. The Union troops wheeled into line and charged upon them, com- 
pelling them to surrender. The bridge was quickly completed, and at 
daybreak on the morning of the last day of April the three cordis were on 
the south bank of the Kapidan. 

It was noon when General Lee heard of it. Nor did he know what to 
make of it. Down the river, opposite Port Royal, was evidently a large 
force ready to cross on the pontoons already laid. From his headquarters 
he could look over Fredericksburg and see a large body of troops on the 
Falmouth Hills getting ready to lay pontoons across the river. Up-stream 
nearly twenty-five miles the roads were swarming with Union trooj^s. 

What was General Hooker going to do? All through the winter Gen- 
eral Lee had been making the front side of his house stronger day by day, 
but now a large Union force was knocking at the side door. 

At one o'clock a Confederate courier fell into the hands of General 
Pleasonton. He was riding hard with a despatch from General Lee to 
General Anderson, commanding the Confederate troops up the river. The 
ink was hardly dry. " I have just received," it read, " reliable informa- 
tion that the enemy has crossed the river in force. AYhy have you not 
kept me informed ? I wish to see you at my headquarters as soon as 
possible." 

General Hooker, by sending the First Corps down the river, by keep- 
ing General Sedgwick with a large force opposite Fredericksburg, by 
marching rapidly with the main body of his army up the Rappahannock 
(for the Second and Third Corps were following), and by crossing that 
river and the Rapidan, had not only deceived General Lee, but had per- 
formed one of the most brilliant strategic movements of the war. 

An important feature of the plan w^as the movement of the cavalry. 
General Stoneman was on the Upper Rappahannock, near Kelley's Ford. 
9 



130 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

He was to cross, divide his force, send part of it south-west to destroy the 
raih'oad and canal leading west from Richmond, and the Confederate sup- 
plies stored in that direction guarded by Fitz-Hugh Lee's division. The 
canal viaduct across the Rivanna River was to be blown up. 

The main movement, however, was to be the destruction of the rail- 
road leading from Fredericksburg to Richmond, over which Lee received 
his supplies. With this destroyed, it was expected that the Confederates 
would be compelled to evacuate Fredericksburg. 

" Your watchword should be ' Fight ! fight ! fight !' " said Hooker, in 
his instructions. 

Fitz-Hugh Lee was on the south bank of the Rapidan with two thou- 
sand Confederate cavaliy, but the Union cavalry had no difficulty in cross- 
inff Raccoon Ford and advancino; to Louisa Court-house. 

The Virginia Central Railroad, which runs from the Shenandoah Val- 
ley to Richmond, was torn up, but the destruction had no effect upon 
Lee. Colonel Wyndham, with a regiment, reached the canal, intending to 
destroy the aqueduct over the Rivanna River, but found that he had no 
means of blowing it up. The whole expedition was a lamentable failure. 

Chancellorsville was not a collection of residences, but only a single 
farm-house, with a broad piazza, surrounded by barns, sheds, and corn- 
ricks — the home of Mr. Chancellor, where General Hooker established his 
headquarters. Standing on the piazza and looking south, you see a level 
field, with woods beyond. South - west, half a mile, are the ruins of a 
once stately home — " Fairview." 

The gentlemen of Old England who settled in Virginia two hundred 
years ago gave pleasant names to their homes. Still farther towards the 
south-west is " Hazel Grove." 

If you would go to Fredericksburg from Chancellorsville you can have 
the choice of two roads part of the way — the turnpike, which is the short- 
est, and the plank road, which joins the turnpike between Tabernacle 
Church and Salem Church. It is three miles from Salem Church to Fred- 
ericksburg. If we go due north one mile from Salem Church we come 
to the Rappahannock, and if the water is not too high, may cross it at 
Banks's Ford. If we go due north from Chancellorsville we must travel 
three miles before reaching the river at United States Ford. Going 
west from Chancellorsville two miles, we come to Dowdall's Tavern, on 
the south side of the road. North of it, and a few rods farther west, are 
Wilderness Church and a farm-house. 

The turnpike runs along a swell of land — the water-shed between the 
Rappahannock and the head-waters of the Ny River, which runs south- 



BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE. 131 

east. A very large portion of the country is covei'ed with a dense forest, 
with patlis and unfrequented roads winding through it. This is the 
ground and position reached by General Hooker April 28th. 

The best men and greatest men make mistakes. The movement to 
Chancellorsville had been splendidly accomplished. General Hooker had 
forty-six thousand men, and General Sickles, with the Third Corps, fifteen 
thousand men, was making haste to join him. 

General Anderson's division of Confederates was the only force in 
position to oppose him. Anderson was at Tabernacle Church, and set liis 
men instantly at work building breastwoi'ks. 

General Lee was in Fredericksburg; Jackson was down the river almost 
to Port Royal. The Confederate army was M'idely scattered. Lee did 
not know what to make of Hooker's movement. He saw a large body of 
Union troops still on the Falmouth Hills, under Sedgwick, who was get- 
ting ready to cross where Franklin's division crossed in December. If 
General Hooker were to advance at once, he could brush Anderson away 
before Lee could join him, forcing him back into Fredericksburg, and com- 
pelling Lee to fight at a disadvantage, or abandon all his fortifications, and 
leave the place which he had Jield securely during the winter. Sucli a 
movement would open Banks's Ford and bring Hooker several miles nearer 
Sedgwick, whose cannon were thundering, his engineers preparing to lay 
pontoons, but making little progress ; and General Lee at last discovered 
that Sedgwick's movement was only a feint — that the real movement was 
the body of troops at Chancellorsville. He did not discover it till the 
evening of the 30tli. A messenger rode to Stonewall Jackson with orders 
to hasten westward. Jackson's troops started at midnight, and at eight 
o'clock on the following morning were at Tabernacle Church. The whole 
of Lee's army was there, excepting Early's division of Jackson's corps and 
Barksdale's brigade of McLaws's division of Longstreet's corps, which had 
been left to confront Sedgwick. 

It was eleven o'clock Friday, May 1st, before General Hooker was 
ready to advance. He moved down the plank road and the turnpike. The 
troops deployed as well as they could in the thickets. General Sykes met 
the troops of McLaws's division and drove them towards Tabernacle 
Church. General Anderson advanced to support McLaws. General War- 
ren, chief engineer for Hooker, thought the ground favorable for fighting 
a battle, but General Hooker thought otherwise, and ordered the troops 
to fall back to Chancellorsville, as a much stronger position. He selected 
a defensive line and threw up breastworks and felled trees, making a strong 
abatis in front. 



132 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

The Union troops, for the most part, were covered by woods. To find 
out just where they were. General Lee sent Wright's and Stuart's brigades 
forward. They attacked the outjDosts of tlie Twelfth Corps and drove 
tlieni in. Tlie Confederate artillery opened fire, and the Union batteries 
replied. General Lee saw that General Hooker occupied a very strong 
position, which he was making still stronger by breastworks and fallen 
trees. The Union artillery was planted to sweep every road and field ; but 
he must attack, or fall back towards Richmond. 

General Stuart, commanding the Confederate cavalry, was riding every- 
where through the woods examining the Union lines. He was familiar 
with all the roads and paths. Through the winter Stuart had ridden 
many times through the Wilderness. He saw where the pickets of the 
Eleventh Corps were stationed ; how General Howard had formed his 
brigades; that the best point to get at the Union army was on its right 
flank and rear. 

General Lee and General Jackson passed the night beneath the pine- 
trees near Tabernacle Church. They were up very early, and were sitting 
on two cracker-boxes that the Union troops left behind as they fell back 
to Chancellorsville, when Stuart arrived from his reconnoissance. They 
had a map which showed all the roads and paths. General Stuart pointed 
out the position of the Eleventh Corps. 

" I sno^o-est that we make the march and attack their riijht flank," said 
Jackson. 

"With what force?" Lee asked. 

" My corps." 

" What shall I have to prevent Hooker from pressing towards Freder- 
icksburg ?" 

"Anderson's and McLaws's divisions."(') 

General Lee reflected. It would be a bold, audacious movement. His 
army was already divided, and this would divide it again. But Hooker 
was so strongly intrenched that to attack in front would result in terrible 
loss, and quite likely be a repulse. If Jackson would make the march 
secretly, and strike a blow where it was not expected, there would be a 
better prospect of success. 

" You may make the movement." 

" Let there be no cheering, no noise, no loud talking," said Jackson to 
his officers, who repeated the order to the men. 

Rodes's division led the advance, and A. P. Hill's brought up the rear. 
The column turned to the left from the plank road near the house of Mr. 
Aldrich. The mud was deep, and the men followed old paths through the 



BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE. 



133 



woods to Mr. Wolfovcl's iron furnace, turning south-west, then north-west, 
making a ziQ-z^a- march to reach the okl Wilderness Tavern, two miles 
west of Greneral Hooker's right wing. General Stuart posted his cavahy 
along the roads and jjatlis to screen the movement ; but the Union pickets 
heard the tramping of feet and the rumbling of wheels. 

"A column of the enemy is moving westward," was the message sent 
from General Birney at nine o'clock. 

He was at Hazel Grove, and could see the troops, cannon, wagons, and 
ambulances streaming along the road. 

What was the meaning of it ? General Hooker saw what it might be 
— a movement of Jackson to gain his right flank. He sent this despatch 
to Howard and Slocuni : " The disposition you have made of your corps 
has been with a view to a front attack by the enemy. If he should throw 




MAP OP CHANCELLORSVILLE. 



himself upon your flank, he [Hooker] wishes you to examine the ground 
and determine upon the position you wnll take in that event. The right 
of your line does not appear strong enough. ISTo artificial defences worth 
naming have been thrown up. We have good reason to suppose that the 
enemy is moving to our right. Please advance your pickets for purposes 
of observation as far as may be safe, in order to obtain timely information 
of their approach." 

General Howard saw the Confederates, and sent this despatch at half- 
past ten : " From General Devens's headquarters we can observe a column 
of infantry moving westward on the road about one and a half miles south 
of this. I am taking measures to resist an attack from the west." 

General Sickles beheld the Confederate column — men, cannon, wagons, 



134 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

and ambulances — winding along the road, and ordered Captain Clark's 
battery to open fire. The shells made a commotion among the Confeder- 
ates, who soon abandoned the road, taking a wood path instead. 

General Hooker, to make the right wing secure, ordered General 
Sickles to send a brigade to strengthen the Eleventh Corps, and General 
Graham, with a battery, moved up the turnpike. General Howard 
was confident that the Eleventh Corps was strong enough to resist any 
attack which might be made upon it, and General Graham marched 
back again. 

This was the position of the two armies at noon, May 2d. 

General Jackson's corps of Confederates was travelling south -w^est, 
whereupon the Union officers came to the conclusion that they were 
retreating. General Sickles obtained permission from General Hooker to 
advance and fall upon them. It was jjast noon when he started with 
Whipple's and Birney's divisions. He came to a swamp, and was obliged 
to halt while the engineers cut down trees to corduroy a road across it. It 
was three o'clock when he reached the road along which Jackson had 
marched. Colonel Berdan's regiment of sharp-shooters in advance came 
upon the Twenty-third Georgia, of Jackson's command, and captured a 
portion of the regiment. 

Some of the prisoners said that Jackson was moving towards Gordons- 
ville, wdiich was true, but he was not going very far in that direction ; but 
General Sickles sent word to Hooker that they were on their way to Gor- 
donsville, which was twenty miles distant. We do not know whether 
General Hooker believed the report or not, but he sent this despatch to 
Sedgwick T 

" We know that the enemy is flying — trying to save his trains. Two 
of Sickles's divisions are among them." 

General Hooker ordered General Howard to send out a brigade to 
support Sickles ; and General Barlow, who was in reserve in the field 
north of Dowdall's Tavern, just where he ought to be, and where he 
ought to have remained, moved south over a road leading to the iron fur- 
nace. The soldiers left their knapsacks behind, little thinking that they 
would not see them again for several months, and that they would recover 
some of them on the field of Wauhatchie, at the base of Lookout Mount 
ain, in Tennessee. 

General Williams's division, of the Twelfth Corps, went out to join 
Sickles, with Livingston's and Ilandolj)h's batteries. Three regiments of 
cavalry also marched in that direction — in all, fifteen thousand men — 
removed from the defensive line which Hooker had chosen, and sent to 



BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE. 135 

strike the rear of a column wliicli was supposed to be retreating to Gor- 
donsville. 

At the hour of four the Eleventh Corps, with Barlow's brigade, one of 
the most efficient of the corps, taken from it, stood alone, with no supports 
near at hand. General Howard's headquarters were at Dowdall's Tavern. 
In the field south of the tavern a few rods was Bushbeck's brigade. West 
of Dowdall's half a mile is the house of Mr. Tally, where General Stein- 
wehr, commanding one of Howard's divisions, had his headquarters. At 
Mr. Tally's house the line turned a right angle to the north through a 
tangled thicket to Mr. Hawkins's farm. On the north side of the turn- 
pike, a short distance from Dowdall's, is the "Wilderness Church, a plain 
building, with no tower or spire. General Schurz's division was around 
and beyond it. On the farm of Mr. Hatch, north-west of the churcli, 
was General Devens's division. Von Gilsa's brigade holding the extreme 
right of the line. With Barlow gone, General Howard had about nine 
thousand five hundred men — three- fourths of a mile from their nearest 
supports. 

The soldiers of the Eleventh Corps could see clouds of dust in the 
west. Captain Yon Fitsch, sent out with a company to reconnoitre, saw a 
body of Confederates. The pickets reported that a Confederate column 
was moving north-west along the flank of the Eleventh Corps ; they could 
hear the rumbling of cannon - wheels. General Howard listened to the 
stories of the pickets, but made no change in the position of his troops. 
He says, in his account of the battle, " I did not think that General Lee 
would be likely to move around our right, because our force was much 
larger than his. He had already been compelled to divide his army, in 
order to hold Sedgwick back. He could not afford to divide it again ; for 
should he attempt to do that. Hooker would attack his separate bodies and 
conquer them in detail ; so I reasoned, and so did others." 

Had the Union commanders reflected npon Stonewall Jackson's tactics, 
they would have seen that it was not his way to retreat, but that it was his 
way to gain the rear and flank of his opponent, as in his movement upon 
McClellan on the Peninsula, upon Pope at Manassas. 

Mr. Tally, who owned the house where General Howard had his head- 
quarters, and who knew every acre of ground, all the roads and paths, rode 
by the side of Fitz-Hugh Lee in advance of the Confederate cavalry. Mr. 
Tally took him to the top of a rounded hill. The scene below him is thus 
described by General Fitz-Hugh Lee : " What a sight presented itself to 
me ! Below, but a few hundred yards distant, ran the Federal line of bat- 
tle, I was in rear of Howard's right. There was a line of defence, with 



136 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

abatis in front and a long line of stacked arms in rear. Two cannon were 
visible in the part of the line seen, the soldiers were in groups in the rear, 
laughing, chatting, smoking, engaged here and there probably in games of 
cards and other amusements. In rear of them were other parties slaughter- 
ing cattle." 

General Fitz-Hugh Lee and Mr. Tally came down from the hill and 
found General Jackson. 

" Come with me, and I will show you the advantage of attacking by 
the turnpike instead of by the plank road," said Fitz-Hugh Lee. 

General Jackson had made his plan to march up the plank road and 
fall upon Howard with his troops facing north-west, which would have 
brought him squarely against Howard's breastworks. He rode with Lee 
to the base of the hill, dismounted, and gained the top. He gazed upon 
the scene with keen delight. Every feature revealed his ecstatic enjoy- 
ment as he noted the positions of the divisions of the Eleventh Corps.(*) 
He was a very religious man, and his soldiers often heard him offering 
prayer. Fitz-Hugh Lee and Mr. Tally heard his low utterances. He saw 
just where he could strike a blow which would crush Howard's line as 
one might crush a bandbox. 

He rejoined his troops, went on to the turnpike north-west, then turned 
due east and deployed his divisions in the fields by the Wilderness Tavern, 
leaving Paxton's brigade and the cavalry at the plank road. 

Stealthily the Confedei'ate skirmishers approached the spot where 
Howard's videttes were stationed on the turnpike — three of them — one of 
M'hom ^was captured, one shot, while the third, with bullets whistling past 
him, made his way like a deer towards the Union lines. 

" The woods are full of rebels," he shouted. Others had told the same 
story, and nothing was done to verify its truth or falsity. The belief 
that Jackson was retreating towards Gordonsville had been accepted, and 
it was taken for granted that his cavalry was guarding his rear. 

Jackson formed his lines with Rodes's division in front, Iverson's and 
Eodes's old brigades north of the road. Dole's and Colquitt's south of 
it. Six hundred feet in rear came Colston's division. 

A. P. Hill's division brought up the rear — not in line of battle, but in 
column in the road. 

The woods were very thick, the trees small, standing so closely that the 
troops found it difficult to make their way. All the cannon, except two 
pieces of Stuart's artillery, were left behind. 

It was just six o'clock, the sun an hour above the western horizon. 
The young leaves were on the trees, the air fragrant with the perfume of 



BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE. 137 

opening spring flowers. Tlie forest was alive with game, and the Con- 
federates saw rabbits and squirrels running in advance of them as they 
marched on. 

Twenty-six thousand men were moving as noiselessly as the tides of the 
sea to overwhelm the less than ten thousand troops of the Eleventh Corps, 
who were eating supper, playing cards, or lying listlessly on the ground, 
their heads upon their knapsacks, their cartridge-boxes unslung, their arms 
stacked, and who had no suspicion of the whirlwind that was advancing to 
sweep them away. 

Suddenly the Union pickets saw rabbits and squirrels leaping past them 
and scampering towards tlie Union position. A moment later they heard a 
confused hum, the tramping of feet, the rustling of the last year's leaves, 
and beheld a line of men in gray swiftly advancing. They fired their guns 
and fled, the Confederates rapidly following. Howard's men heard the 
guns, and beheld the rabbits and squirrels bounding over their breast- 
works. In came the pickets, shouting that the Confederates were upon 
them. They heard a rustling like the rising of tlie wind, like the surge 
of an advancing wave. 

The One Hundred and Fifty-third Pennsylvania and the Sixty-eighth 
New Yoi'k were on the extreme right of Howard's line — new regiments 
recruited from tlie German population of those States who had seen no 
service, never had heard the sound of a minie-bullet whistling j)ast them, 
and who knew nothing of discipline. They were in groups, with their 
guns stacked. Upon them the blow was to fall. They heard a wild 
yell as startling as the warwhoop of a tribe of Indians in battle; then 
came a roll of musketry and a humming like that of bees in the air 
around them. A shell exploded among them. All this in one minute. 
We might as well expect a house built of laths to withstand a whirl- 
wind as to count upon such undisciplined soldiers to seize their guns, 
form in line, and confront Stonewall Jackson's veterans under such cir- 
cumstances. A few grasped their guns and fired, but most of the sol- 
diers of those two regiments ran like deer across the fields of Mr. Haw- 
kins, some of them never stopping till they reached Ely's Ford, where a 
German threw himself panting upon the ground, exclaiming " Mine Gott, 
vat a times !" Baggage- wagons, ambulances, ammunition trains, together 
with a herd of oxen, all the camp-followers, and frightened soldiers went 
tearing down the plank road and streaming across the fields in rout and 
panic. 

"I could see," says General Howard, "numbers of our men — not the 
few stragglers that always fly like chaff at the first breeze, but scores of 



138 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



them, msliing into the opening, some with arms and some without, run- 
ning or falling before they got behind the cover of Devens's reserves, and 
before General Schurz's waiting masses could deploy or charge. (') The 
noise and smoke filled the air with excitement; and to add to it, Dickman's 
guns and caissons, M'itli battery, were scattered, rolled and tumbled, like 
runaway wagons and carts in a thronged city. The guns and the masses 
of the right brigade struck the second line of Devens's before McLain's 
front had given way ; and quicker than it can be told, with all the fury of 
the wildest hail-storm, everything — every sort of organization that lay in 
the path of the mad current of panic-stricken men — had to give way and 




WILDERNESS CHURCH. 

The view is from Duwdairs Tavern, looking north-west. General Devens's brigade was in the field 
beyond Hawkins's house, seen in the distance. Wiederick's and Dilgei's batteries came into position in the 
foreground, where General Howard formed his second line. 



be broken into fragments. My own horse seemed to catch the fury; he 
sprung, he rose high on his hind-legs, and fell over, throwing me to the 
ground. My aide-de-camp, Dessane, was struck by a shot and killed, and 
for a few moments I was as helpless as any of tlie men sj^eeding without 
arms to the rear." 

Captain Hickman, Battery I, First Oliio, had two cannon in the road 
leading up to the woods from Hawkins's house, but before he could get 
them into position the Confederates were upon him, and the gunners were 
compelled to flee, leaving their cannon. 

A few men of the Pennsylvania regiment, not panic-stricken, fired a 
volley, which did great execution ; but they too were obliged to go. 



BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE. 139 

The Seventy-third and Twenty-fifth Oliio seized their guns, changed 
front, and made a stubborn fight. McLain's brigade of Union troops, 
which had faced south, changed front to the north-west, and resolutely 
confronted Dole's brigade of Confederates. It was a veteran brigade — 
had been in many battles. Though so greatly outnumbered, the brigade 
maintained its ground till five commanders of regiments w^ere killed or 
wounded — till the Confederates were folding round its flank, and then the 
survivors, with more than six hundred of their number killed or wounded, 
retreated across the field. 

General Devens, commanding the division, was wounded, but did what 
he could to form a new line. 

General Schurz was at Howard's headquarters when the crash came. 
He dashed up the turnpike, and saw the Confederates falling upon the 
Twenty-sixth Wisconsin and One Hundred and Nineteenth New York — 
new regiments — but they held their ground till more than half the officers 
and a large number of tlie men were killed or wounded, and then retired 
in good order past the Wilderness Church. 

General Schimmelpfennig, an oflicer from Germany, commanded a bri- 
gade in the second line of the Eleventh Corps. When the troops of the 
front line came dashing through his regiments he kept them steady, 
changed front, advanced, and met the Confederates. Seventy men went 
down in the Eighty-second Illinois. Its commander, Colonel Hecker, to 
rally his men, seized the flag and waved it, but the next moment fell from 
his saddle pierced by a bullet. Slowly across the field the brigade retired, 
firing upon the advancing Confederates. 

General Howard saw that the only place where he could make a stand 
was on the ridge north of Dowdall's Tavern. He ordered the artillery into 
position. There was a quick lashing of horses, and in two minutes Dilger's 
and Wiederick's batteries were sending shells into the Confederate ranks. 
Bushbeck's brigade opened a fire which did great execution, maintaining 
their position. For more than an hour the four thousand men and the 
artillery on the ridge east of the church confronted the Confederates, who 
outnumbered them three to one after the crumbling of Howard's first line. 
Darkness was coming on, the night settling down, when these men of the 
Eleventh Corps moved down the road towards Chancellorsville. Without 
assistance from any quarter tliey had done what they could to check the 
advance of Jackson. 

The firet intimation General Hooker had of disaster to his right flank 
was from the fugitives streaming past his headquarters. He was quick 
to act. He must recall Sickles ; must throw a force in front of Jackson. 



140 MAECHING TO VICTORY. 

His own old division, wliicli he led at Willianasburg, at Fair Oaks, at the 
second Bull Knn, at Antietam, was in reserve under General Berry. It 
came into position in the fields west of Chancellorsville. 

The retreating troops formed behind this tried and faithful division. 
The Eighty-second Ohio, Eighty-second Illinois, Twenty-sixth Wisconsin, 
One Hundred and Fifty-seventh New York, and other regiments halted, 
dressed their lines, and stood ready to face the foe once more. 

Daylight had faded. The Confederates had driven in the Eleventh 
Corps, but not without great loss. The stubborn resistance on the ridge 
at Dowdall's had made sad havoc in Jackson's front line, which had become 
disorganized. Brigades and regiments were in such confusion that Jack- 
son was obliged to halt to reform them. 

" In the advance," says General Colston, " the formation of the troops 
became very much confused, and the different regiments, brigades, and 
divisions were mixed up." 

At this hour let us go down to Hazel Grove, south of Jackson's posi- 
tion. The cavalry brigade, under General Devin, is there, sent out to sup- 
port Sickles. There are three regiments — the Eighth and Seventeenth 
Pennsylvania and Sixth New York, with Martin's horse battery. Al- 
though General Devin commands the brigade. General Pleasonton, who 
commands what little cavalry has been left by Stoneraan, is the ranking 
officer. 

It was nearly sunset when a messenger informed General Pleasonton 
that the enemy had attacked the Eleventh Corps. 

The Eighth Pennsylvania had halted in the woods waiting for orders. 
Major Keenan, Captain Dudley, Adjutant Haddock, and Lieutenant AVells 
were under a tree playing cards. 

" Mount !" was the order from Major Huey, commanding the regi- 
ment. 

" You have spoiled a good game by the order," said Major Keenan. (') 

The regiment was ordered to report to General Howard. 

" You will find him near Wilderness Church," said General Pleas- 
onton, 

Ko word of a disaster had reached them. They had not heard the 
firing; they did not know that the Eleventh Corps was drifting toAvards 
Chancellorsville, or that Jackson's lines were advancing towards Fairview. 
The column wound along the road. Major Huey, Major Keenan, Captain 
Arrowsmith, Lieutenant Carpenter, and Adjutant Haddock were in front. 
The regiment was in good spirits. They had seen the Confederates re- 
treating, as they supposed, towards Gordonsville. They had no thought 



BATTLE OF ClIANCELLORSVILLE. lil 

of an impending engagement. Their sabres were in their scabbards, and 
the men riding listlessly. They reached the plank road, when suddenly 
they were confronted by the advancing Confederate line. 

There are moments in battle when men must think quick and act 
upon the instant — when a moment's delay is fatal. What shall be done? 
Cavalrymen and Confederates alike are astounded. 

" Draw sabre !" 

In an instant the bright blades gleam in the fading light. 

" Charge !" 

The spurs prick the horses' sides. Down the road plunges the column 
— the horses straining every muscle, the men com23rehending the great- 
ness of the moment, lifting their sabres high in air. They rush upon the 
astonished Confederates, who stand motionless and irresolute. The horses 
trample them down. Sabre blows fall thick and fast. Some of the Con- 
federates throw down their guns and raise their hands beseechingly. 

Recovering from their astonishment, the Confederates open fire, and 
horse and rider tumble headlong. For one hundred yards the cavalry 
column ploughs its way through the infantry ranks before it loses its 
aggressive force. It is the work of three minutes, but in that brief period 
eighty horses have gone down and thirty cavalrymen have been killed and 
wounded, and nearly as many Confederates. 

Among the slain are Major Iveenan, Captain Arrowsmith, and Adju- 
tant Haddock. The regiment cuts its way out and reaches the open field 
at Fair view. 

Without doubt this unpremeditated engagement had an important 
bearing upon Jackson's contemplated movements ; not because any great 
thing was accomplished, but it was an attack from an unexpected quarter, 
and there was no knowing what might be behind it. It was an attack upon 
his right flank, which made him cautious. 

We are to keep in mind the fact that General Sickles was far out from 
the main line, preparing to fall upon Lee's left flank. 

" The enemy have attacked Howard and driven him in," was the mes- 
sage sent to Sickles. 

" That cannot be," was the reply. He had heard no firing. He fully 
believed that Jackson was retreating, and he was getting ready to double 
up Lee's flank. 

" Keturn at once," was the order from Hooker hy a second messenger. 

While General Sickles's troops are making their way back towards 
Fairview, let us see what is going on there. Berry's division is coming 
into jDosition ; the troops of the Eleventh Corps are forming behind it. 



142 MARCHING TO VICTOKY. 

General Slociira is facing the troops of the Twelfth Corps towards the 
west. Down by Hazel Grove is the artillery of Whipple's division and 
Martin's horse battery. The Confederates are advancing. 

General Pleasonton ordered Martin's battery into position and to load 
with double charges of canister. Captain Crosby, counnanding a battery, 
rode up. " General, I have a battery of six guns ; where shall I go 'P 

" Place your guns on the right of Martin's."Q 

Captain Huntington, of the First Ohio Battery, wheeled his guns into 
line, and in a short time others came, making twenty-two cannon in all. 

General Pleasonton directed the gunners how to aim. The Confeder- 
ates were about six hundred feet distant. 

" Aim so the shot will hit the ground half-way between the guns and 
the woods." He knew that the shot would strike and be deflected from 
the ground at the same angle, and would not fail to do great execution. 

Darkness is setting in when the Confederates reach the edge of the 
woods. The cannoneers stand waiting for the order to fire. One of them 
sees a Union flag along the line at the edge of the woods. 

" General, are not those our troops ?" asks a cannoneer. 

"• Major Thomson, ride out there and see who those people are," is the 
order of Pleasonton to one of his staff. 

The ofiicer rides forward. 

"Come on, we are your friends," are the words from the woods. Major 
Tliomson sees three Union flags waving, trophies picked up by the Confed- 
erates. A bullet whistles past him, and then comes the battle-cry of the 
Confederates — the prolonged yell of thousands of men. His horse wheels, 
and the major is lying low npon his neck as he rides back. The twenty- 
two cannon are flaming, pouring a terrific stream of canister into the Con- 
federate ranks. (*) 

Jackson had advanced nearly through the woods west of Chancellors- 
ville and Fairview. One thought had taken possession of him : to get be- 
tween Hooker and the river, cut off his retreat, push the Union army 
against Lee, and grind it to pieces as corn is ground between millstones. 
He had placed A. P. Hill's division in front. They were fresh troops, and 
he was confident of success. It is evident that he understood very imper- 
fectly the situation of the Union army. It is evident also that if such a 
movement had been attempted it would have failed of success. The moon 
was full, and his advance would have been seen and met by a terrible fire 
from Berry's division, from the Fifth and Twelfth Corps, and the First 
Corps moving up from the river, taking a position to fall upon his 
flank. 



BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE. 143 

His troops were near the house of Mr. Van "VYert ; the lines of the two 
armies were not more tlian fifty rods apart. Although Jackson evidently 
believed that the Union troops were still fleeing, he rode forward with his 
staff to reconnoitre, going beyond his pickets. 

" Isn't this the wrong place for you ?" asks one of his staff. 

" The danger is over. The enemy is routed. Go and tell A. P. Hill to 
press right on."(') 

The Eleventh Corps had been routed, but Berry's division and the 
Twelfth Corps were not. Immediately in front of Jackson, lying behind 
breastworks, not three hundred feet distant, is the First Massachusetts. 
The soldiers hear the tramping of horses' feet, and discover dark forms 
moving through the forest. They fire a volley. Tlie Confederate troops 
south of the road reply. A ball cuts through the palm of Jackson's right 
hand, and two through his left arm. Captain Boswell, of liis staff, is killed, 
and several others wounded. Jackson's frightened horse rushes through 
the woods towards the Union line, but he turns it back upon the plank road. 
Captain Wilbowen, of his staff, seizes the bridle and quiets the horse, and 
Jackson, weak and faint, falls into his arms and is laid upon the ground. 
The Union troops are advancing. Two Union skirmishers are captured 
only a few yards away. Two Union cannon are wheeling into position 
within three hundred feet to sweep the road. Captain Leigh raises him, 
and carries him a few rods. He is placed upon a litter. But novi^ the Union 
cannon flame, and one of the litter-bearers is shot dead. The whole party 
fall flat upon their faces. A terrible storm of canister is hurled into the 
forest, cutting the twigs and young leaves as a hail-storm cuts the ripened 
grain. Captain Crutchfield, commanding the Confederate artillery, and 
many others are wounded. 

The line of fire changes, and the bearers lift him once more, carrying 
him to A. P. Hill's line of battle. General Pender recognizes him in the 
darkness. 

" I fear we cannot hold our position. The troops have suffered from 
the artillery fire and are in disorder," said Pender. 

" You must hold the ground," is the reply from Jackson. 

Again the storm bursts upon them. One of the litter-bearers falls, and 
the shot extorts a groan from the wounded commander, but they reach an 
ambulance and he is carried to the rear — to the house of Major Lacey, be- 
yond the Wilderness Tavern. His left arm is shattered, and the surgeons 
sever it from the body. His wounds begin to heal, but pneumonia sets in. 
The disease baffles the skill of the physicians, and he dies peacefully on 
Thursday, at Gniney's Station. His mind was wandering. He was on the 



IM 



MAECHING TO VICTORY. 




WHEKE STONEWALL JACKSON WAS SHOT. 



battle - field issuing the order, " Tell A. P. Hill to prepare for action !" 
Beautiful and tender were the last words upon his lips : " Let us cross the 
river and rest beneath the shade of the trees." The Confederates had lost 
a great commander, one of remarkable piety of character and of executive 
ability, w"hose name will live in history so long as the story of the mighty 
conflict shall be told. 

It probably never will be known who fired the volley which wounded 
him — whether the First Massachusetts or his own men. It has gone into 
history that it was his own men. A correspondent of a Richmond paper 
reported that Jackson said that it was by his own men. Captain Hotchkiss, 
Jackson's chief engineer, who has w^ritten a book about Chancellorsville, 
says, " His party, mistaken for Federal cavalry, were fired into by a brigade 
on the south of the road at a distance of not more than thirty or forty 
yards." 

Jackson's enthusiasm, overmastered for the moment his prudence, and 



BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE. 145 

led him in front of his own line and close up to those opposing him — as- 
suredly not the proper place for a commanding general. 

In the artillery fire from the Union guns General A. P. Hill was 
wounded, and General Stuart became commander of Jackson's troops. 

The action of the artillery is thus described by one who served in the 
Confederate army : " The ridge in front of Chancellorsville resembled a 
volcano vomiting iron and fire. A hurricane of shell and canister swept 
the road as with a besom of destruction, and the broken ranks, riderless 
horses, and wild confusion made up a scene of tumult which was enough 
to try the stoutest nerves. A storm of grape tore through the trees and 
along the road, and for a moment the Southern line was thrown into dis- 
order."0 

It is altogether probable that if Jackson had not been wounded, and 
had pushed on A. P. Hill, as he intended, in the darkness, the Confederate 
troops would have been fearfullj'^ cut to pieces by the veterans of Berry's 
division, standing mute and motionless, waiting for the expected advance 
which, in consequence of Jackson's wounding, was not attempted. 

General Sickles had returned. He was between Hazel Grove and Fair- 
view. At midnight the cannon flamed once more, and under its cover 
Ward's brigade charged into the woods and drove the Confederates from 
their position, but in turn were driven. 

We are not to think that General Lee, with Anderson's and McLaws's 
divisions, east of Chancellorsville, was sucking his thumbs from five o'clock 
in the afternoon till midnight. On the contrary, his artillery had been 
making a great uproar, making believe that he was going to attack with 
great vigor. He waited quietly till he heard the roar of battle* at Dow- 
dall's, and then issued his orders. He says : " As soon as the sound of 
cannon gave notice of Jackson's attack, our troops in front of Chancellors- 
ville were ordered to press strongly the left, to prevent reinforcements be- 
ing sent to the point assailed. They were directed not to attack in force 
unless a favorable opportunity should present itself. These orders Avere 
well executed, our troops advancing to the enemy's intrenchments, while 
several batteries played with good effect until prevented by increasing 
darkness." 

The Union artillery replied. The threatening appearance of Anderson 
and McLaws prevented Hooker from sending any of the troops westward 
to confront Jackson. 

Through the night Lee made his preparations to attack Hooker, lay- 
ing new plans to meet the changed condition of affairs. Through the 
night Hooker was also laying new plans. General Warren rode to Fal- 
10 



146 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



iiioiith with a message to General Sedgwick to cross tlie river at once and 
inarch np the Cliancellorsville road. 

"You will probably," read the order, "fall upon the rear of the forces 
commanded by General Lee, and, between you and the Major-general 
commanding, he expects to use him up. Send word to General Gibbon 
to take possession of Fredericksburg. Be sure not to fail." 

The moon \vas full. Through the night it had looked down upon the 
two armies gathered in the buddino; forest, frao-rant with ffreen foliao-e and 
opening flowers ; npon wounded men and lifeless forms. There had been 




CHANCELLORSVILLE HOUSE. 

From a photogrnph, taken May, 1SS4. It was of biick, and was btunecl duiiiig the war, but the walla 
are the sauie. Several cauuou-balls remain in the walls. 



little sleep in either army. Till two o'clock in the morning the cannon 
flamed and muskets flashed, and long lines of men swayed to and fro 
across the fields and through the woods ; but at that liour the lips of the 
cannon were allowed to cool, and the wearied soldiers threw tliemselves 
upon the last year's dead leaves to rest a while before the renewal of the 
conflict. 

General Hooker, from the outset, determined to fight a defensive bat- 
tle. All of his plans had been overturned by his own mistakes and his 
misconception of the meaning of Jackson's movement. The crushing of 
the Eleventh Corps, the sending of Sickles to attack the rear of Jackson, 
had placed the army in a false position. The ground at Tally's was a 
commanding position, but he had lost it. The ridge at Dowdall's over- 



BATTLE OF CHANCELLOESVILLE. 147 

looked a wide sweep of country; but he had been obliged to give it up. 
General Sickles was at Hazel Grove — a very strong position — higher 
ground than that at Fairview and Chancellorsville ; but he must retire from 
it because it was too far out from the main line. 

It was four o'clock in the morning when Whipple's division started 
from Hazel Grove for Fairview. Birney followed. Graham's brigade 
Avas the last to leave. It was five o'clock before the Confederates discov- 
ered the movement. Stuart's troops were cooking their coffee, and General 
Stuart was changing his line. He did not intend to begin the battle so 
early, but his soldiers were burning to avenge the loss of Jackson, and 
opened fire. General Graham was cool. " About face ! take aim ! fire !" 
was his order, and a volley crashed upon the morning air, followed by 
the thunder of Huntington's guns. It was so prompt and effectual that 
the Confederates were held in check, and Graham moved on to Fair- 
view, 

General Hooker saw that he must fight a battle at a disadvantage or 
retire to a new line in rear of Chancellorsville. The engineers laid out 
the line three-quarters of a mile north of Chancellorsville, from the 
"AVhite House" — Mr. Bullock's residence — along Mineral Spring Run, 
north-east to the Rappahannock, and north-west to the Rapidan. The 
pioneers threw up breastworks. It was a very strong position, but Gen- 
eral Hooker, instead of retreating to it, resolved to hold the ground at 
Fairview and Chancellorsville. He would remain where he was till Sedg- 
wick, from Fredericksburg, could have time to fall upon Lee's rear. He 
expected to hear the thunder of Sedgwick's guns at sunrise and to see 
confusion in Lee's ranks. 

Beginning now on Little Hunting Run, a mile north-west of Chancel- 
lorsville, we see the First Corps, under Reynolds, facing south-west, with 
no Confederate troops in front excepting scattered cavalrymen. 

Walking south-east along the road towards the White House, we see 
Sykes's division, extending to Mr. Bullock's. The Mineral Spring road 
turns north-east here, and we see the Fifth Corps, under Meade, and the 
Eleventh Corps, along the road, extending to the river, the troops facing 
south-east. These three corps are on the new line ; they will take no part 
in the impending battle. 

Two roads lead from the White House — one south-west three-quarters 
of a mile to the turnpike, the other a little east of south three-fourths of a 
mile to Chancellorsville. 

Going down the first, we come to Berry's division, holding the right 
of the troops which are to take part in the conflict. Fie is in the woods, 



lis MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

tliree-fonrtlis of a mile west of Cliaiicellorsville, and the left of his divis- 
ion reaches to tlie junction of the two roads. The next division in line is 
Williams's, of the Twelfth Corps. These troops face west, and are on 
the ground which they occupied at sunset when Jackson was sweeping on 
from Dowdall's and stopped his advance. Williams''s troops are a quarter 
of a mile west of Fairview, lying behind intrenchments; Best's artillery 
is on the crest at Fairview, with Franklin's brigade behind it; Berdan's 
sharp-shooters are in front of the infantry; on the turnpike are two of 
Dinnnick's cannon pointing towards Dowdall's ; Mott's brigade of New 
Jersey troops is in reserve in rear of Williams's right; on the turnpike, 
half-way to Chancellorsville, is the remainder of Whipple's troops. 

Going to the left of Williams, on the southern slope of Fairview, we 
come to Geary's division of the Twelfth Corps, with Birney, of the Third 
Corps, behind it. We have turned a sharp angle. Geary and Birney face 
south-east. Standing at the angle and looking sonth-west we see Hazel 
Grove — a farm-house — cleai-ed fields — half a mile away; the ground much 
higher than Fairview. Sickles has just abandoned it, and there at sunrise 
are five Confederate batteries of artillery — thirty cannon — being placed 
in position by Major Walker. His solid shot and shell will soon come 
tearing along the Union lines, enfilading Williams and Geary alike. 

From Chancellorsville eastward are the plank road and turnpike. 
Gearj-'s line extends to the plank road, and there connects with Hancock's 
division, which runs along the plank road a quarter of a mile, crosses it, 
then turns sharply north to the turnpike, crossing it and reaching to Min- 
eral Spring Run. Hancock's right wing faces south-west, while those on 
the left face east. 

Seemingly it was a great mistake to withdraw Sickles. In battle it is 
of the utmost importance to break the enemy's line. Lee had divided his 
army voluntarily. He had struck a telling blow, but Sickles had made a 
movement which would compel him to fight henceforth M'ith a divided 
army. Hazel Grove was on high ground — a commanding position. Most 
of Stuart's troops were facing east, but he had been obliged to face some 
of them south, towards Hazel Grove, to front Sickles. Now, going up 
north of Berry's division, we see the First Corps, with Sykes's division 
of the Fifth (fresh troops), which might be flung upon Stuart's left flank 
while Berry and Williams held him in front. Such a movement would 
doul)le Stuart up, just as Jackson crushed Howard. 

Going now over to the other side, we find Meade with two divisions 
and Howard with the Eleventh Corps in position to swing round upon 
Lee's right flank — just in the right position to co-operate with Sedgwick, 



BATTLE OF CHANCELLORS VILLE. 14U 

wliose gnns will soon be heard in the direction of Fredericksburg, driving 
Barksdale. 

Seemingly such movements would have resulted in a crown of victory 
for the Union armies, for it would have given Hooker a chance to have 
employed the whole of his army instead of one-third of it. He had eighty 
thousand men, in round numbers, against forty-five thousand Confederates. 

General Stuart saw the Union troops abandoning a commanding posi- 
tion at Hazel Grove. A few minutes later his artillery was galloping up 
the slope and wheeling into line. He says, "As the sun lifted the mist 
tJiat shrouded the field it was discovered that the extreme right was a fine 
position for concentrating artillery. I immediately ordered thirty pieces 
to that point. The effect of the tire upon the enemy's batteries was 
superb." 

Hazel Grove was flaming like a furnace, and the Union guns at Fair- 
view replying, when General Heth, conjmanding Stuart's front line, ad- 
vanced the troops of McGowan and Lane against Williams. Their blood 
was at fever-heat over the loss of their great leader. "Jackson ! Jackson !" 
they shouted, as they rushed to the attack. 

In the Union line the Third Maryland, in Knipe's brigade, held tlie 
right on the plank road. It was a new regiment, and this was its first 
battle. It stood its ground for a few moments, losing one hundred men, 
and then gave way. When the dam is broken the water passes throui^di, 
and so into this gap rushed the Confederates with a wild hurrah, a portion 
striking Berry's left flank, and also folding back Williams. 

It w^as a wise forethought that placed Mott's Union brigade on the 
plank road a few rods in rear of the Maryland troops. 

The Confederates rushed upon Dimmick's battery, shot the hoi'ses, 
and seized the guns, when the New Jersey brigade, under Mott, threw 
themselves into the breach. It was a fearful hand-to-hand struggle. The 
prisoners which the Confederates had taken were recaptured, together with 
nearly one thousand Confederates. The Third and Seventh New Jersey 
regiments captured eight battle-flags. They saved the cannon, drawing 
them back by hand. So powerful was the charge that the whole Confed- 
erate line fell back, and the cheers of the men in blue rang out upon the 
morning air. Again they advanced against Berry, and again were driven. 

There was a lull in the storm while Stuart reformed his lines. 
Nichols's, Iverson's, and Rodes's brigades attacked Ben-y, who was every- 
where along the line encouraging his men. He was a brave officer. Gen- 
eral Hooker regarded him as the ablest of all his generals. He had a pre- 
sentiment that this was to be his last battle — that on this Sunday he was 



150 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

to lay down his life for his country. The fatal bullet was fired, and 
he fell. 

General Eevere was next in command. What motive actuated him 
we do not know; but to the surj^rise of his troops, to the amazement of 
all the officers and the men, he ordered his own brigade to the rear. Gen- 
eral Sickles ordered the troops to return, and deprived him of his com- 
mand. He was court-martialed after the battle, and dismissed from the 
army ; but the kind-hearted President, Abraham Lincoln, allowed him to 
resign instead. 

Colonel Stevens assumed command, but only to be shot down a few 
moments later. General Hayes, with a brigade^ of French's division, M^as 
sent to support Berry, but the Confederates made a charge and bore him 
away prisoner. 

With Berry gone, with no competent commander to direct affairs, the 
division, after a struggle of two hours, was obliged to fall back towards 
Chancellorsville. 

Williams's division was out of ammunition. "Cartridges! Give us 
cartridges !" was the cry. The soldiers gathered up the boxes of their 
wounded comrades, but their fire slackened. The retiring of Berry's 
troops compelled Williams to fall back. The Confederates were elated 
with their success. 

General Hooker was standing on the piazza of Mr. Chancellor's house, 
the shot and shells falling around the building. A solid shot struck a 
pillar, splitting it, and throwing a piece which felled him to the ground. 
For a few moments he was unconscious. He was laid upon a blanket and 
borne to the rear. A moment later a shot tore up the ground where he 
had been lying. He was unable to issue orders, and the command of the 
army fell upon General Couch, the next in rank, who knew nothing of 
Hooker s plans, and very little of what was going on, or what ought to be 
done. He issued no orders. JSTor was General Hooker quite willing to 
yield the command. Sickles and Williams, of the Twelfth Corps, had 
been bearing the brunt of the battle, which was raging more fiercely than 
ever. 

In Ruger's brigade of Williams's division were the Second Massachu- 
setts, Third Wisconsin, and Twenty-seventh Indiana. In front of them 
was McGowan's brigade from South Carolina. Three times the Confed- 
erates rushed upon them. Three of the Confederate color-bearers fell one 
after the other. In like manner three in the Second Massachusetts went 
down. The Union troops were out of ammunition, but they stood sullenly, 
with fixed bayonets, holding the ground. 



BATTLE OF CHANCELLORS VILLE. 151 

Tims far we have seen what was going on between Sickles's right and 
Stuart. Now let us go over to the east side of the field. We are not to 
think that General Lee had been doing nothing all the morning; on the 
contrary, Anderson's troops had been reaching west towards Hazel Grove, 
connecting with Stuart's, and now they were pressing against Geary and 
Hancock. All the while Hazel Grove was smoking like a volcano, pour- 
ing such a destructive fire upon the Union artillery at Fairview and upon 
the Union lines that General Sickles saw he could not hold the position. 
He called for reinforcements, but they did not come. General Hooker, 
stunned and almost incapable of issuing orders, was thinking only of his 
stronger line in the rear. To that he resolved to retire. 

General Sickles withdrew his artillery from Fairview towards Chan- 
cellorsville, and the infantry to the breastworks which the artillery had 
vacated. Lewis's, Seeley's, and Randolph's batteries stayed at Fairview, 
while the others galloped to the rear. The Fifth Maine battery took posi- 
tion in the yard around the house. Seeley had lost forty horses. " Take 
off the harnesses. Don't let the enemy have them !" he shouted, and 
though the shells were bursting thick and fast around the battery, the 
drivers gathered up the harnesses, heaped them upon the limbers, and 
bore them triumphantly to the rear — the last to leave. 

Sickles's and Slocum's troo.ps retired in order, forming in three lines 
in rear of Chancellorsville, joining Hancock. The Confederates brought 
forward their cannon to Fairview, and to the edge of the woods south 
of the house, and rained their shells upon Chancellorsville, setting the 
house on lire. 

The Confederates fought wnth tremendous energy ; but Stuart's troops 
were exhausted. See what they had done. It was midnight, Thursday, 
when they started from near Port Royal and marched twenty miles be- 
fore halting. On Saturday morning they began their long march to Dow- 
dall's. On Saturday evening they rushed upon the Eleventh Corps and 
fought till nine o'clock. They had had no breakfast; had been fighting 
since daylight. They had struck a great blow and won a victory ; but 
their lines were now disorganized — divisions, brigades, and regiments con- 
fused. They had lost many men. Though exhausted, the lines were re- 
formed, and ammunition distributed. 

The Union troops are behind the breastworks of the new line. The 
woods are thick, and there are not many places where artillery can be used ; 
but General Hunt, commanding the artillery, has massed thirty pieces un- 
der Captain Randolph, forty-eight near the "White House, under Captain 
Weed, and thirty-two under Colonel Wainwright, to sweep the approaches. 



152 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

General Colston, commanding A. P. Hill's division, is selected to lead. 
It is three o'clock when he advances. He has four brigades — Nichols's 
and his own east of the road leading to United States Ford, Jones's and 
Paxton's west of it. 

He orders a battery of Xapoleon gnns into position, which opens fire, 
bat almost instantly — in less than two minutes — lifty officers and men are 
stricken down by the terrific fire of the Union guns. 

The line advances, but it is instantly cut through and through by the 
shells. It is impossible to face such a storm, and the men retreat in con- 
fusion, leaving the ground thickly strewn with killed and wounded. Gen- 
eral Lee sees that Hooker at last is upon ground which cannot be assailed. 

Out in the woods west of Chancellorsville there was a terrible scene. 
The woods were on fire, the flames running in the last year's leaves. A 
wail of agony went up from the wounded as the flames curled around 
them. Union men as well as Confederates were lying there. The Confed- 
erates hastened to save them, but many were burned to death before they 
could be rescued. 

They had fought the Union men, but in this hour of dire calamity hu- 
manity triumphed, and won a greater victory than that achieved on the 
slopes of Fairview. 

General Sedgwick, with the Sixth Army Corps of Union troops, was 
opposite Fredericksburg; also a division of the Second Corps, commanded 
by General Gibbon. Mr. Lowe was there with a balloon tethered to a rope, 
which was loosened, and Mr. Lowe went up so high that he could look 
down upon the Confederates behind the breastworks on the heights of 
Fredericksburg, and count the number of cannon still there. He could 
see the troops which Lee had left nnder the command of General Early. 

On Saturday afternoon, just as Stonewall Jackson was looking down 
from the hill south of Mr. Tally's house upon the troops of the Eleventh 
Corps, and laj'ing his plans to attack them. General Sedgwick received 
this despatch from General Hooker : 

" We know that the eneni}^ is flying, trying to save his trains ; two of 
Sickles's divisions are among them." A few minutes later came a second : 
" The major-general comriianding directs you to pursue the enemy b}- the 
Bowling Green road." 

General Sedgwick had already laid a pontoon bridge across the river, 
and in the evening the troops under his command crossed. At eleven 
o'clock Saturday night he received an order to jDush on towards Chancel- 
lorsville. " You will probably fall," read the order, " upon the rear of the 
forces commanded by General Lee, and between us we will use them up." 



BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE. 155 

The despatch was sent from Chancellorsville at ten o'clock in the even- 
ing, when the disaster to the Eleventh Corps was fnllj known. A few 
moments later General Warren, of the engineers, sent by Hooker, arrived 
and informed Sedgwick of all that had happened at Dowdall's. 

The moon was full, but a dense fog hung over Fredericksburg, and the 
troops under Sedgwick moved slowly towards the town. Day was break- 
ing when the skirmishers drove the Confederate pickets through the town. 
The people were astonished to find the Union troops once more swarming 
through the streets. 

General Early had about nine thousand Confederate troops. Barks- 
dale's and Hays's brigades held the heights. Wilcox's brigade arrived also 
from Banks's Ford. General Pendleton commanded the artillery. 

General Sedgwick placed Gibbon's division on the right, above the 
town, Newton's in front of Marye's Hill, Howe's division at the lower end 
of the town, and Brooks's division in reserve. 

It was half-past five when Shaler's brigade, in reconnoitring, found that 
the bridges across the canal between the town and Marye's Hill had been 
taken up, and that General Pendleton had his cannon aimed to hurl shells 
upon any party attempting to reconstruct them. The artillery on both 
sides opened fire. 

"Take planks and timbers from the nearest buildings "(°) was Gibbon's 
order to the pioneers, who tore down some barns and sheds ; but those who 
attempted to lay the timbers were swept away by the Confederate artillery. 

General Newton was an engineer, and believed that the bridge could 
be built and the heio'hts carried. At his suffsjestion Sedg-wick extended 
his lines right and left, which compelled Early to extend his, greatl}' 
reducing the number of men holding the grounds around Mr. Marye's 
house. While this was being done two columns of Union troops were 
forming in the streets of the town, concealed by the houses from the 
Confederates. They were to be storming parties — to rush up the two 
roads and penetrate the Confederate line. The troops in line of battle 
were to move simultaneously with the columns. The theory of the attack 
was that either the lines or the columns would succeed in gaining the 
heights. Colonel Shaler commanded the right column of four regiments. 
Colonel Johns the left, consisting of two regiments. Gibbon's division 
and Eustis's brigade had the right of the line, Burnham's brigade the cen- 
tre, to rush towards the sunken road ("Drum-beat of the Nation," battle 
of Fredericksburg) while Howe's division and Wheaton's brigade were to 
make believe they were going to sweep up Hazel Run. The columns 
were to go upon the run four soldiers abreast. 



156 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

It was ten minutes past eleven when tlie signal was given. The bridges 
had been rebuilt. The column under Colonel Johns was on the telegraph 
road. The men came down a hill to the canal. Instantly the Confederate 
cannon flamed, and the sunken road was white with the smoke of the 
Confederate muskets. The men in blue were upon the run. Some went 
down — Colonel Johns among them. For a moment the head of the col- 
umn faltered. "On! on! onl^C") was the shout from those behind. Tlieir 
blood was up. The fog had cleared away, and the May sun gleamed from 
their bayonets as they rushed up the hill past the Confederates in the 
sunken road, eager to seize their cannon at the top of the hill. 

On the turnpike two Confederate howitzers rain canister upon the 
advancing column, but the men in blue charge upon them. The men of 
Howe's division, who were to make only a feint, catch the enthusiasm and 
climb the steep hill-side, sweeping all before them. Up over the field 
where Sumner's troops were slaughtered in December rush the men of 
Burnham's brigade, charging upon the Confederates in the sunken road. 
It is the work of fifteen minutes. One thousand men have fallen, but the 
Stars and Stripes are waving in triumph on Marye's Hill, and the Confed- 
erates are fleeing, leaving four cannon behind them. 

Three miles out from Marye's stands Salem Church, a plain brick 
building, with a grove of oaks and a thicket eastward, where beneath the 
shade of the trees the people on Sunday tether tlieir horses. Westward is 
an open field and a farm-house. Beneath the oaks, a short distance east of 
the church, was a log school-house. Tlie ground descends rapidly towards 
Fredericksburg. General Lee had seen the strength of the position, and 
had constructed a line of intrenchnients past the church, behind which 
the retreating Confederates halted. Here he learned of what had taken 
place at Fredericksburg. The battle of Chancellorsville was over; he had 
driven Hooker from his chosen position, and now sent a portion of his 
troops to aid in turning back Sedgwick, who, after having carried Marye's 
Heights, moved very slowl}', w^aiting to place Brooks's division in froiit. It 
was between four and five o'clock when Brooks advanced. Sedgwick did 
not know that Mahone's brigade and McLaws's division of Anderson's 
corps had reached the church. He did not know that the Confederates' 
were behind a line of intrenchnients. Bartlett's Union brigade was south 
of the road, Torbet's north of it, Eussell's in rear. I^ewton's division was 
on the right of Brooks's. Brooks's troops advanced through the thickets 
to the school-house. Instantly a storm burst upon them from the win- 
dows of school-house and church, from the breastwork, from muskets and 
cannon. A company of the Ninth Alabama is in the school-house ; the 



BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE. 



157 



remainder of the regiment is in the cliurch, Avhich is a fort for the time 
being. 

Bartlett's brigade charges upon the school-honse, and the Alabamians 
tlirow down their guns in token of surrender. The Union line goes on 
np to the church. The Union bullets flatten against the walls. The M'in- 
dows are high, and the Confederates pour a deadly fire upon the men in 
blue, who are obliged to fall back. They have not sent the prisoners in 
the school - house to the rear, and the Alabamians again pick up their 




SALEM CHURCH. 



guns, and engage once more in battle. The other Confederates follow, but 
are swept back by the Union artillery. 

The battle M'as over. General Sedgwick prepared for the morrow, 
abandoning his connection with Fredericksburg, and opening communica- 
tion with Hooker by Banks's Ford. "When he advanced upon Marye's 
Heights, General Early, with six thousand Confederate troops, was at Ham- 
ilton's Crossing protecting the supplies for Lee's army accumulated at that 
point. He made his way west, and during the night once more took pos- 
session of Marye's Heights, to capture which had cost so many valuable 
lives. Had Sedgwick not been called back by Hooker when he advanced 
towards Hamilton's on Saturday night, it is quite probable that he would 



158 MARCHING TO VICTORY, 

have defeated Early, captured or destroyed the supplies of Lee, and com- 
pelled him to fall back towards Eicliraond ; but, called back by Hooker and 
ordered to attack Marj^e's Heights, he had obeyed. Lee, having driven 
Hooker from Chancellorsville, decided to go with Anderson's division to 
Salem Church, leaving Stuart with Jackson's and Hill's corps to make a 
show and demonstration in front of Hooker, but not to renew the battle. 
This the situation on Monday morning : In Fredericksburg two thou- 
sand Union troops, with Sedgwick's wounded, holding the town and the 
bridge. On Marye's Heights six thousand Confederate troops under Early, 
ready to pounce upon Gibbon or to act against Sedgwick, who is in front 
of Salem Church, three miles west, with sixteen thousand, confronted by 
Lee with twenty-five thousand Confederates, which, joined with Early, will 
outnumber Sedgwick two to one. Eight miles west of Salem Church was 
Stuart with the remainder of the Confederate army, not exceeding twenty 
thousand, making a demonstration by artillery, by picket-firing, against 
Hooker with between sixty and seventy thousand, but who is wholly in the 
dark as to the movements of Lee, and Avho does nothing. 

!N"ot till six o'clock on Monday evening was Lee ready to attack Sedg- 
wick, who had swung round towards Banks's Ford, where a pontoon 
bridge had been laid by the engineers. Early led the attack, but was 
repulsed with a loss of about fifteen hundred men. General Lee saw that 
he could not dislodge Sedgwick without suffering great loss, and did not 
renew the attack. General Sedgwick saw that his line was too much ex- 
tended, and fell back towards the river. 

" Withdraw across the river," was the order received by Sedgwick 
from Hooker at one o'clock. 

When daylight came, Sedgwick was on the northern bank, and Gib- 
bon, with the w^ounded, was back once more on the Falmouth Hills. Gen- 
eral Hooker called his corps conmianders together. What should be done ? 
He was in a strong position, but no advantage w*ould be gained by remain- 
ing, and it w^as decided that the army should retreat. There had been rain 
in the mountains, and the water was rising. The engineers were compelled 
to take up one bridge to piece out the other. At sunset the troops took 
uj) their line of march. General Lee, through his spies, knew what was 
going on ; he did not attempt to hinder it. His cannon were silent, for he 
had little ammunition left. On Tuesday morning the Union army was 
on the north bank of the river, having, including prisoners, lost nearly 
seventeen thousand men, while the loss of the Confederates was not far 
from thirteen thousand. Nothing had been gained by Hooker, while the 
Confederates could justly regard it as a brilliant victory. 



BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE. 159 

General Hooker has been condemned for his course of action at Chan- 
cellorsville, but there are many things to be taken into account if we 
would arrive at just conclusions. His strategy in reaching Chancellorsville, 
blinding Lee as to his real movement, has been regarded as exceedingly 
able. His falling back from Tabernacle Church to Chancellorsville was 
seemingly a mistake in tactics. With only a handful of cavalry left, after 
the departure of Stoneman, he could obtain no certain information as to 
the movements of Lee. His hasty conclusion that the movement of Jack- 
son across his front was a retreat of the Confederate army to Gordonsville, 
adopted by Hooker and his generals alike, was an astounding error of judg- 
ment. The disregard paid to the reports of the scouts and pickets that 
Jackson was moving to gain the flank of the Eleventh Corps is equally 
unaccountable. It is not difficult to account for the inaction of Hooker 
after his prostration by the piece of a pillar of the Chancellorsville pi- 
azza, which hurled him to the ground, stunning him and so benumbing 
his senses that several days passed before he fully regained them. He was 
incapacitated from exercising the judgment needful in battle. More than 
this, he had intended from the outset to gain a strong position and fight a 
defensive battle. He had not contemplated for a moment the taking of 
the aggressive, and it is now known that President Lincoln said to him, 
when he placed Hooker in command, " Whatever you do, do not lose the 
Army of the Potomac." With these considerations in view we can under- 
stand why the army stood motionless behind its intrenchments through 
Monday, when by a simultaneous advance Stuart, with what was left of 
Jackson's troops, might have been swept from the field of Chancellors- 
ville. But it was not in the ordering of events by Him who notices the 
fall of a sparrow, who guides nations to their destiny. 



NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII. 

( ') Mr. Tally to author. 

( ^) Idem. 

( ^) Geueral Howard, Century Magazine, September, 1886. 

( ^) " History of the Eighth Pennsylvauia Cavalry." 

( *) Genera! V\ei\.?>ox\\.on, Century Magazine, September, 1886. 

( ^) Major Thomson's letter, quoted in Century Mac/azine, September, 1886. 

( ') Dabney, " Life of Jackson." 

( *) John Esten Cooke. 

( ') General Gibbon to author. 

('") Geueral Newton to author. 



160 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



CHAPTER IX. 

SPRING OF ]863. 

WE approach the turning-point in the great struggle. The months of 
May and June, 1863, will ever stand as the most critical in the his- 
tory of the mighty conflict. General Grant had begun his movement to 
gain the rear of Yicksburg ; General Banks was closing around Port Hud- 
son — movements which were designed to open once more the Mississippi 
to the peaceful commerce of the world, severing Arkansas, Louisiana, and 
Texas from the other States of the Confederacy. 

In Tennessee the Army of the Cumberland, under General Posecrans, 
was preparing to move against the Confederates under General Bragg at 
Tullahoma. 

The Army of the Potomac was upon the Falmouth Hills, opposite 
Fredericksburg. Fifteen thousand soldiers, whose term of enlistment had 
expired, were returning to their homes. Including the losses at Chancel- 
lorsville and those in the hospitals, thirty thousand had disappeared from 
the ranks. A portion of the loss had been made good by the arrival of 
new troops, but they were not the veterans who had fought in a score of 
battles. The many defeats on the Peninsula, at Manassas, Fredericksburg, 
and Chancellorsville had had a manifest effect upon the spirits of the 
army. The soldiers knew that they had fought bravely, but had suffered 
defeat through the mismanagement at Washington and incompetency of 
their commanders. They had lost none of their love for the flag, which 
i-epresented all that was dear to them in life. 

The Confederates encamped upon the hills behind Fredericksburg 
were exultant over the victories they had won, and had good cause for 
swinging their hats and hurrahing, to feel that they were invincible, and 
could win a victory against great odds ; that General Lee was a great 
commander, who would lead them ever to victory. They Avere sad over 
the death of Stonewall Jackson, and felt that the loss was irreparable. 
New conscripts were arriving by the thousand to fill up the ranks. Long- 
street's corps had returned from Suffolk. The S23irits of the troops never 



SPRING OF 1863. 161 

liad been so liigli. The people of the South believed that the army under 
General Lee could not be defeated. The Richmond Examiner had this 
relative to the military strength of the Confederacy : " It never was more 
ample than now. We have arms for one million soldiers. "We have from 
six hundred to six hundred and fifty thousand effective men. The State 
militia will give two hundred thousand more. These figures are au- 
thentic."(') 

It advocated offensive operations by General Lee. The time was pro- 
pitious. The Union army would lose in all sixty or seventy regiments. 
The Union troops were discouraged. ''No treaty of peace is possible save 
one signed on the enemy's soil," it said. 

General Longstreet, the first week in May, was in Richmond, and called 
upon Mr. Seddon, Secretary of War. 

" I have a plan," said Mr. Seddon, " for sending your troops west to 
Mississippi to join Johnston and attack Grant, who is laying siege to Yicks- 
burg. What do you think of it ?" 

" I think that there is a better way to relieve Pemberton by brinwino- 
the troops under Johnston to Tullahoma, and to hurry forward two of my 
divisions. With these troops Bragg can crush Eosecrans ; then he can 
march through Tennessee and Kentucky, and threaten the invasion of 
Ohio. He will have no opposition, and will find provisions everywhere. 
The result will be the withdrawal of Grant from Vieksburg to head off 
Bragg."C) 

General Longstreet went on to Fredericksburg and talked the matter 
over with General Lee. 

" To take away your corps will divide my army," said General Lee. 

No commander likes to have his troops taken away from him. It is 
human nature for us to desire to wield all possible power. General Lee 
was thinking of a plan. He knew that Hooker's army was growing 
smaller, that regiments were leaving, and that others were not taking 
their places. It was hardly to be expected that Hooker, after the defeat 
of Chancellorsville, would make any movement. What should be done ? 
A victorious army after a great victory cannot sit down and do nothing 
without loss of prestige. If Lee could drive Hooker back to Falmouth, 
what could he not do with forty thousand additional troops ? 

" Why not invade Pennsylvania ?" General Lee asked. 

" Such a movement," said Longstreet, " can be successful if made offen- 
sive in strategy but defensive in tactics." 

B}'- that he intended to say that if Lee should select his line of march, 
and the country he intended to occupy, and when it came to a battle to 
11 



1G2 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

select his ground and wait to be attacked, he would be successful. " The 
movement," he added, " into Pennsylvania will make a great stir in the 
Xorth, and Hooker will be compelled to attack you on your chosen ground. 
You remember ]N^apoleon's advice to Marmont: 'Select your ground and 
make your enemy attack you.' At Fredericksburg we held Burnside with 
a few thousand men, crippling and demoralizing his army, while we lost 
very few. At Chancellorsville we attacked, and Hooker was on the de- 
fensive. "We dislodged him, but at such a terrible sacrifice that half a 
dozen such victories would have ruined us." 

There were many reasons why General Lee should inake a movement 
somewhere, and especially why he should invade Pennsylvania. 

The war from the beginning, except the battle of Antietam, had been 
in the seceded States, where the hostile armies had marched to and fro, 
wasting the country, leaving desolation behind them. The Southern news- 
papers were calling for a movement of the victorious army of Northern 
Virginia into Northern territory, that the people there might feel the bur- 
den and woe of war. The state of affairs in the Northern States favored 
sucli a movement. 

There were so many disloyal men in Ohio and Indiana that General 
Burnside, who had been sent to Cincinnati to take command there, pub- 
lished an order threatening the arrest of men who should give aid and 
comfort to the enemy. 

On May 5th, when Hooker was being driven from Chancellorsville, 
Burnside sent soldiers to Dayton, who arrested Clement L. Vallandigham. 
He was tried by a military court. General Burnside paid no attention 
to the writ of habeas corpus, which was issued by a judge of one of the 
courts, for the civil power had been placed beneath the military. Bayonet 
instead of civil law ruled. Yallandigham was declared guilty of express- 
ing his sympathies in favor of the enemy. He had been very bitter against 
the President and the continuance of the war. He was put in prison, but 
President Lincoln thought it better to send him south to the Confederates. 

Mr. Yallandigham had opposed the war from the beginning, and he had 
rendered great service to the Confederates by his disloyalty to the Union. 
The newspapers of the South had praised him for what he had done, 
but he was treated with scant civility in Richmond. He could not render 
any service to the Confederacy there. These the words of a Richmond 
newspaper : " He has no claim on our gratitude. He is simply an alien 
enemy, a prisoner of war, a i-espectable enem3^"(') 

Mr. Yallandigham made his way to Canada, and was soon back in Ohio, 
the candidate of the Peace party for governor. 



SPRING OF 1863. 163 

Wlien the war began more men volunteered than were called for, but 
the wave of patriotism had spent its force ; no volunteers came to fill up 
the ranks, and Congress ordered a draft. It was to go into effect July 1st. 
The Peace Democrats said that tlie war was a failure. 

A great " Peace " Convention was lield in New York City, which 
passed resolutions favoring State rights, for which the South was con- 
tending. These the words of one of the resolutions : " Under the Consti- 
tution there is no power in the Federal Constitution to coerce the States 
by military force." 

Fernando Wood, of New York City, said, " I am for peace as the only 
possible liope for the restoration of the Union. I am for peace because 
the war is a failure. The Government has no power to coerce a State. 
It is a faihire because we have undertaken what we cannot perform." 

The Democratic Convention of Pennsylvania denounced the emancipa- 
tion of the slaves by President Lincoln and the employment of negroes as 
soldiers, and passed this resolution : 

" The party of fanaticism — or crime, whichever it may be called — that 
seeks to turn loose the slaves of the Southern States to overrun the North, 
and to enter into competition with the white laboring masses, thus degrad- 
ing their manhood by placing them on an equality with negroes, is insult- 
ing to our race, and meets our most emphatic and unqualified condemna- 
tion. This is a government of white men, and w^as established exclusively 
for the white race." 

From the beginning of the war tlie Confederate Government had been 
looking eagerly across the Atlantic to the countries of Europe for sympa- 
thy and help, had received both in arms, ammunition, and sujjplies of all 
kinds — had been recognized as belligerents. But that was not enough — 
they must be recognized as a nation. They had defeated great armies, 
won brilliant victories. If now they could invade Pennsylvania and de- 
feat the Northern army in its own territory, their friends in England 
would compel the Qireen to recognize the Confederacy as a nation. 

If they could defeat the Union array in Pennsylvania, then they could 
take possession of Baltimore and redeem Maryland ; then Washington 
would be theirs, and they would fling out the Stars and Bars above the 
dome of the Capitol, and the Confederacy and not the Union would ev- 
erywhere be hailed as the rising power of the Western World. The rec- 
ognition of the Confederacy by France and Great Britain would irritate 
the North, already angered by the course pursued by the latter country ; 
war would follow, and then the iron-clad war-ships of England's great navy 
would scatter the fleets blockading Wilmington and Savannah and the 



164 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

Chesapeake like chaff before the wind, and carry desolation to New York 
and Boston. The troops of Great Britain were already in Canada ; Con- 
federate agents were at work in Montreal and Toronto, and opposite De- 
troit, or Niagara Falls. Once bring about a war between England and the 
United States, and the independence of the South was certain. 

Mr. Roebuck, a member of Parliament, and a great friend of Jefferson 
Davis, and Mr. Lindsay — also a member of Parliament, who owned a great 
many ships, and who, we may believe, was not sorry to know that the 
Florida and Alabmna were burning the ships owned by Americans ; that 
every vessel thus destroyed would bring more grist to his mill and give em- 
ployment to more British vessels — were both exceedingly active to bring 
about a recognition of the Confederacy as a nation by England. Mr. Koe- 
buck brought a motion before Parliament to that effect. The debate upon 
the question was to be held on the evening of the last day of June. The 
Confederate agent in London had written to Richmond these words: "At 
least five-sixths of the lower House and all the peers, with only two or 
three exceptions, are friendly to us."Q 

Mr. Roebuck was the member from Sheffield, where tall chimneys were 
pouring out clouds of smoke, engines throbbing, steam-hammers pounding, 
and forges flaming, rolling out thick iron plates for England's navy and 
for the Confederate navy, and steel for the manufacture of cannon for the 
Confederates. Mr. Roebuck held a meeting there and induced his constit- 
uents to declare in favor of recognizing the South. 

Mr. James Spence, of Liverpool, who had a valuable contract with the 
Confederate Government, was organizing " Southern Clubs " and " Asso- 
ciations" to influence the people of England, the working-men, the fam- 
ishing of Lancashire, to declare themselves in favor of recognition. The 
agent of the Confederacy in London was employing a great number of 
men to write articles for the newspapers in favor of the Sonth. One 
morning in May, while the army under General Lee was getting ready to 
march towards Pennsylvania, the people of London saw on all the bill- 
boards along the streets, displayed in bright colors, the British and Con- 
federate flags side by side. The Confederate agent, Mr. HotzCj wrote to 
Mr. Benjamin in regard to it, 

" I have taken measures to placard every available space in the streets 
of London with representations of our newly adopted flag conjoined with 
the British flag. I design it to impress the masses with the vitality of 
our cause, to produce some effect before the motion comes on for discus- 
sion."0 

In the month of March, through the action of Baron Erlanger, of 



SPRING OF 1863. 165 

France, Mr. James Speiice, of Liverpool, and some of the bankers of Lon- 
don and Paris, a scheme was carried out, the promoters of whicli expected 
to make a great deal of money, and at the same time help on the Confed- 
eracy. It was known as the Confederate Cotton Loan. Cotton was very 
cheap in Charleston, Savannah, and Mobile, but it was worth fifty cents a 
pound or more in Liverpool. The Confederate Government was to de- 
liver the cotton at a fixed price, the money thus obtained to go for the 
payment of the men who were building the iron-clad ships of war in the 
ships-yards at Birkenhead, and for cannon, powder, muskets, and supplies. 

Persons subscribing to the stock of the company were to have their 
shares at ninety, the par value being one hundred. The loan was put on 
the market on March 19th, and so adroitly had the agents stimulated the 
stock - brokers, and those who sympathized with the South, that sixteen 
million dollars were subscribed for, and the shares commanded a premium 
of four and one-half per cent., and a great many people were disappointed 
because there were no more shares to be had.(^) Mr. Mason, Confederate 
minister, wrote this in his letter to Mr. Benjamin, " It shows, inalgre all 
detention and calumny, that cotton is king at last.'''' 

Mr. Roebuck and Mr. Lindsay were doing what they could to induce 
Parliament to vote in favor of Mr. Roebuck's motion, and to bring about 
the co-operation of Louis Naj)oleon. Mr. Slidell, in Paris, was working 
with them. Had we been in the apartments of the Emperor in the Tuil- 
eries on the afternoon of June 18th, we should have seen Mr. Slidell and 
Louis N^apoleon consulting together. 

"Would it be agreeable for you to see Mr. Roebuck and Mr. Lindsay?" 
Mr. Slidell asked. 

"I would like to see them. You may write to them to that effect."(') 

The Emperor waited a moment, and then said, " I think I can do bet- 
ter : make direct proposition to England for joint recognition. ... I shall 
bring the question before the Cabinet meeting to-day." 

Mr. Slidell thanked him for his sanction of the contract mr.de for the 
building of four ships of war at Bordeaux and Nantes, and said, 

" I am prepared to build several iron-clad ships in France, and I only 
require your verbal assurance that they shall be allowed to proceed to sea, 
under the Confederate flag, to enter into contracts for that purpose." 

" You may build the ships, but it will be necessary that their destina- 
tion shall be concealed." 

Mr. Roebuck and Mr. Lindsay hastened to Paris and out to Fontaine- 
V^leau, saw the Emperor, and on the 25th of June, while the army of 
General Lee was in the beautiful Cumberland Yalley, in Pennsylvania, 



166 



MAECHING TO VICTORY. 



making its way towards Gettysburg, Mr. Slidell wrote this to Mr. Ben- 
jamin : " Tlie interview of Messrs. Roebuck and Lindsay with the Em- 
peror at Fontainebleau was highly satisfactory. They were authorized to 
state in the House of Commons that the Emperor was not only willing 
but anxious to recognize the Confederate States, with the co-operation of 
England."0 

This the state of affairs across the Atlantic as the Confederate army— 




GENERAL J. E. B. STUART. 



consolidated into three corps, commanded respectively by Longstreet, A. 
P. Hill, and Ewell; the cavalry by Stuart, and the artillery under Pendle- 
ton — prepared to move north, with the confident expectation that they 
would march in triumph wherever Lee might lead them— possibly through 
the streets of Philadelphia — and make Washington the capital of the Con- 
federacy-O It is quite probable that no such picture presented itself to the 



SPKLXG OF 1863. 167 

imagination of generals Lee or Longstreet, or other Confederate officers ; 
they were able commanders, who made a proper estimate of the difficul- 
ties before them, but the enthusiasm of the soldiers was unbounded ; they 
were confident of victory, and that they could reach Philadelphia or New 
York. 

The Army of the Potomac under General Hooker was not so well or- 
ganized as that of General Lee. It was composed of six corps, giving to a 
corps commander only half as many men as were controlled by a Confed- 
erate corps commander. The horses of the Union cavalry had been badly 
broken down in the long, hard marches of Stoneman at the time of the 
battle of Chancellorsville. General Pleasonton had been placed in com- 
mand of the cavalry, who set himself to work to obtain new horses. 

Deserters from the Confederate army, the last week in May, informed 
General Hooker that an order from General Lee had been read to the army 
that the troops were to have long marches and hard fighting in a part of 
the country where there would be no railroad transportation for them. 

On the second day of June a man reached Fortress Monroe from Rich- 
mond, who said that General Lee was going to invade Maryland, Gen- 
eral Hooker saw that some of the tents which had dotted the landscape on 
the green hills across the Rappahannock were there no longer. His scouts 
said that troops were moving from the battle-field of Chancellorsville 
towards Culpeper; that the Confederate cavalry was encamped in the 
fields near that town, and that Stuart was getting ready to make a move- 
ment; whereupon he determined to find out what General Lee was doino-, 
and ordered jDontoon bridges to be laid where Sedgwick crossed the river 
four weeks before. Again the Sixth Corps, under Sedgwick, marched 
down to the river, but only a portion of the troops crossed. General 
Longstreet's troops had just started towards Culpeper, and were at once 
halted ; but General Lee came to the conclusion that General Hooker was 
not intending to cross the river, and the troops moved on. 

General Hooker was troubled by visitors who came to the army. Fa- 
thers and mothers wanted to see their sons ; wives, their husbands ; sisters, 
their brothers. He sent this to Mr. Stanton, Secretary of War : 

" My army is more in danger of being taken by the women than by 
rebels. They arrive by steamboat-loads. Yesterday was not a good day 
for them ; only eighteen arrived ; of these fifteen held passes from the 
"War Department." Li another despatch, the same day, he gave this infor- 
mation to General Halleck: "As the accumulation of the heavy rebel force 
of cavalry about Culpeper may mean mischief, I aui determined to break 
it up." 



168 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

General Hooker wrote to President Lincoln expressing a desire, in case 
a large portion of the Confederates were to leave Fredericksburg, to cross 
and fall upon those remaining. This the reply of the President : 

" I have but one idea which I think worth suggesting to you, and that 
is, in case you find Lee coming to the north of the Rappahannock, I would 
by no means cross to the south of it. If he should leave a rear force at 
Fredericksburg, tempting you to fall upon it, it would fight in intrencli- 
ments and have you at a disadvantage, and so man for man worst you at 
that point, while his main force would in some way be getting an advan-. 
tage of you northward. In one word, I would not take any risk of being 
entangled upon the river, like an ox jumped half over the fence, and liable 
to be torn by dogs front and rear, without a fair chance to gore one way 
or kick the other." 

Again General Hooker sent a despatcli : " Will it not promote the true 
interests of the cause for me to march to Richmond at once ?" 

He received this reply : " I think Lee's army, and not Richmond, is 
your true objective point. If he comes towards the Upper Potomac 
follow on his flank, and on the inside track, shortening your lines while 
he lengthens his. Fight him, too, when opportunity offers. If he staj's 
where he is, fret him and fret him." 

From the beginning of the war the cry had been throughout the 
North, " On to Richmond !" McClellan had made the Confederate capi- 
tal his objective point. General Hooker was doing the same. They had 
been educated at West Point; but President Lincoln, who never had read 
a work on military art, by his common-sense comprehended and outlined 
the correct tactics to be pursued in the campaign which Lee, and not 
Hooker, was inaugurating. 

General Stuart, commanding the Confederate cavalry, was proud of his 
troops. Twice he had ridden round the Union army — once on the Penin- 
sula, and once in Maryland. He held a grand review of them on the 
smooth fields around Culpeper. The corps was in superb condition, 
numbering between eleven and twelve thousand. Each soldier regarded 
it as a grand occasion, w^itli General Lee present to behold their martial 
bearing. It was a magnificent spectacle. The review over, the brigades 
moved northward towards the Rappahannock. The movement for the 
invasion of the North had begun. In the morning Stuart was to cross the 
river and move so as to screen the marching of the infantry. Fitz-Hugh 
Lee's brigade, under Colonel Mumford, was picketing the river. The order 
was issued for an early start in the morning. 

The railroad leading from Alexandria south-west crosses the Rappahan- 



SPRING OF 1863. 



169 




BRANDY STATION. 



nock Eiver. Brandy Station is the first stopping - place south of the 
river, and Culpeper the second. Two miles below the bridge is Kellej's 
Ford ; two miles above it, Beverly Ford. I^orth of Brandy Station stood 
St. James's Church, on the road leading to Beverly Ford, on the w^est 
side of the road. On the east side is the house of Mr. Thompson, an old- 
fashioned brick mansion, 
surrounded by a beauti- 
ful grove of trees on a 
knoll, which overlooked 
the surrounding fields. 
The Sixth Virginia Cav- 
alry of Jones's brigade 
tethered their horses be- 
neath the trees, and the 
horse artillery parked 
their guns farther up the 
road in a field bordered 
on the north by woods. 
It is nearly two miles 
from the ford. Not far 

from Brandy Station is another large mansion, to which the owner had 
given the name of Fleetwood, where General Stuart had his headquar- 
ters. There is another mansion, that of Mr. Barbour, beautifully situated, 
with trees around it, upon a swell of land, with broad fields northward 
and eastward. This the ground on which the Confederate cavalry had 
bivouacked. 

On the afternoon of the 8th of June, while the Confederate cavalry was 
marching in review, the Union cavalry was moving south-west from its 
position on the flank of the Union army, accompanied b}" Ames's and Eus- 
eell's brigades of infantry. General Pleasonton, with Buford's division 
of cavalry and Ames's brigade of infantry, was moving in the direction of 
Beverly Ford ; Gregg's cavalry and Russell's infantry were moving towards 
Kelley's Ford. Duffle's brigade was to cross the river below Gregg, move 
south to Stevensburg, on the direct road from Fredericksburg to Culpeper, 
then move to Brandy Station and join the other columns at that point, 
General Pleasonton supposing the while that Stuart was at Culpeper, five 
miles beyond Brandy Station. 

The Union cavalry halted for a short rest through the brief summer 
night. jSTo fires were kindled. ]^o Confederate picket or scout saw them. 
The morning of the 9th dawned. A thick fog, which concealed them, 



170 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

luiiig along the valley. Davis's brigade of Buford's division was in ad- 
vance on the road to Beverly Ford. The cavalrymen reach the stream. 
The Confederate pickets on the southern bank are startled by the sudden 
splashing of water. Before they can leap into their saddles the Union 
troops are upon them, capturing nearly all of them. 

Had General Buford known that the Confederate batteries were parked 
near at hand, behind a piece of woods ; that the horses were unharnessed 
and just munching their corn, he miglit have swooped down upon them, 
as an eagle upon its prey, and captured four full batteries ; but he did not 
know they were there. 

There was a quick harnessing of horses. The skirmishers began firing 
witli their carbines. The Confederates of Jones's brigade were quickly in 
the saddle. Then came charge and countercharge, tiring of pistols, draw- 
ing of sabres, a melee in which Colonel Davis, of the ISTew York regiment, 
was mortally wounded, and the regiment driven ; but the Eighth Illinois 
came up and the Virginians were turned back. The artillerymen drove 
upon the gallop across the field to St. James's Church, M^here the guns 
were wheeled into position. In the flight of the Confederate wagons a 
desk was jostled from one of them, which the Union soldiers picked up, 
finding papers which informed Pleasonton of the movement which Stuart 
was to have made, and of the intention of going beyond the Potomac. 
There was a saddling of horses in all the Confederate brigades, a sudden 
breaking up of the camp, and a movement of all the baggage-wagons tow- 
ards Culpeper. General Stuart sent a portion of the troops towards Kel- 
ley's Ford, and then rode up to St. James's Church to direct the battle. 
A messenger came from the direction of Kelley's Ford wdth the informa- 
tion that a force of Union cavalry was advancing towards Brandy Station 
from the east ; in a few moments they would be in possession of Fleet- 
wood. Colonel Long, of Stuart's staff, sent messengers to Stuart with the 
news. 

The Confederate commander did not credit tlie information. " Ride 
back there and see what all that foolishness is about," he said to Major 
Hart. Then the sound of cannon was heard, and Stuart sent two regi- 
ments towards Fleetwood, with their horses upon the run, to find that the 
Union men of New Jersey, under Colonel Wyndham, were advancing to 
seize the hill. Stuart began to comprehend the situation. He ordered his 
troops to fall back from St. James's Church and concentrate at Fleetwood. 

A great cavalry battle began for the possession of the hill — a battle 
very difficult to describe. It was mainly between Gregg's Union division 
and the whole force of Confederates, with the exception of one brigade. 



SPKING OF 1863. 173 

We may think of ten tlionsand horses, ten thousand fearless riders ; the 
rattling fire of carbines, thundering of cannon ; brigades charging upon 
the guns, flashing of sabres, cutting and slashing, horses and men going 
down in heaps ; yells, curses, thick clouds of smoke and dust, charge and 
countercharge — a Confederate battery captured and recaptured, again 
in the hands of the Union troops, again lost, a third time taken, a third 
time lost — men sabred at the guns, horses and men struggling and writh- 
ing ; reinforcements of Confederates, the arrival of Rodes's division of 
infantry, the withdrawal of the Union troops unmolested by the Confed- 
erates ; six hundred Union and as many more Confederates killed or w'ound- 
ed, three Union cannon the trophies of the Confederates. 

They were the guns of the Sixth New York Battery. Of the thirty- 
six men belonging to the battery twenty-one were either killed, wounded, 
or were missing. General Gregg reformed his troops on the ground where 
he had formed them for the attack, and returned across the river, Stuart 
making no attempt to harass him, for Buford was threatening him from 
the north-west, where the contest was renewed with great fury, while down 
towards Stevensburg a third conflict was going on between a portion of 
the Confederates and the Union cavalry under DuflSe, which was soon 
over, Duffie being ordered to join General Gregg. With the setting of 
the sun the Union cavalry recrossed the Rappahannock, having accom- 
plished their object — ascertaining the position of the Confederate forces ; 
that a portion of the infantry was at Culpeper. They had done more 
than this — they had frustrated the plan of General Lee, the sending of 
Stuart to menace Washington in his northward movement. Far more 
than this, for the struggle around Fleetwood was the making of the 
Union cavalry, and the unmaking of the Confederate. Up to that hour 
the Union cavalry had been of little account as a distinct arm of the serv- 
ice ; but now organized as a compact body, wielding its strength in solid 
mass, it became a formidable power, while the Confederate cavalry, from 
that hour, was on the wane, 

" The battle," said a Richmond paper, " narrowly missed being a great 
disaster to our arms. Our men were completely surprised, and w^ere only 
saved by their own indomitable gallantry and courage. . . . The Yankees 
retired slowly, disputing every foot of ground."('°) 

The Union troops were elated by what they had done, while the Con- 
federates were astonished at the persistency, bravery, audacity, and hardi- 
hood of the Union cavalrymen. We shall see that in every cavalry en- 
gagement, from that hour to the close of the war, the Union cavalry 
maintained the prestige won in this engagement. 



174 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

In several histories of the Avar it is asserted that the attack of the 
Union cavalry at Brandy Station compelled General Lee to change all his 
plans ; that he had intended to march along the eastern base of the Blue 
Ridge, while Stuart was to screen the movement by moving towards 
Washington ; but I do not find any evidence that General Lee had marked 
out such a movement for his main army. General EwelPs troops were 
then on their way towards the valley of the Shenandoah. 

Before the Confederate army started from Culpeper, General Long- 
street sent his trusted scout, Harrison, into the Union lines to see what 
General Hooker w^as doingr. 

" Where shall I report to you ?" the scout asked. 

" Find me wherever I am," was the reply. 

General Longstreet gave him some money — not Confederate money, 
but gold, and the scout disappeared. We shall see him by-and-by. 

The Union troops at Winchester, in the Shenandoah Yalley, were in the 
department commanded by General Schenck, who was at Baltimore. He 
sent word to General Milroy at AVinchester to send his supplies to Har- 
per's Ferry. General Milroy rej)lied that lie could hold the place against 
any force that would probably attack him. He did not know that the 
whole Confederate army was moving in that direction. He said that there 
were Union people in Winchester, and that it would be cruel to abandon 
those who were looking to him for protection. General Schenck replied 
that he might remain, but must be ready to move at any moment. The War 
DejDartment at Washington made the mistake of not letting Mih-oy know 
that the main body of the Confederate army was at Culj^eper — a neglect 
which resulted in disaster. Milroy telegraphed on the evening of the 12th 
for specific orders, but before the orders were ready Ewell's cavalrymen 
had cut the wires. The next morning Rodes's division of Ewell's corps 
w^as at Berry ville, east of Winchester, but the Union brigade there escaped 
to Harper's Ferry. Rodes went on to Martinsburg, north of Winchester, 
getting between Milroy and the Potomac, while the other divisions of 
Ewell advanced directly upon the town. Milroy was nearly surrounded. 
He spiked the guns in the forts on the hills west of the town, abandoned 
his wagon-trains, and at midnight succeeded in escaping with a portion of 
tlie troops ; but all the sick in the hospital and nearly half of his com- 
mand were taken prisoners. By staying a day too long the Union army 
lost more than two thousand men, besides the cannon and wagons. On 
Sunday evening, while Milroy was getting ready to escape, President Lin- 
coln, in Washington, w\as sending this despatch to Hooker: "If the head 



SPRING OF 1863. 175 

of Lee's army is at Martinsburg and the tail of it on the plank road, be- 
tween Fredericksbui-g and Chancellorsville, the animal must be thin some- 
where. Could you not beak him ?" 

The President sent General Couch to Harrisburg and another officer 
to Pittsburg to make arrangements against invasion, and issued a procla- 
mation calling out one hundred thousand militia from Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
New York, Xew Jersey, and Maryland. Governor Curtin, of Pennsylva- 
nia, also issued a proclamation, informing the people of the State of the 
threatened invasion. On the 15th of June I reached Harrisburg. The 
city was a bedlam. A great crowd of people — excited men, women wring- 
ing their hands, and children crying, all with big bundles — were at the 
railroad-station, ready to jump into the cars to escape northward or east- 
ward. Merchants were packing up their goods. There was a great pile 
of trunks and boxes. Teams loaded with furniture, beds, and clothing 
rumbled throngh the streets ; wagons were crossing the bridge over the 
Susquehanna ; farmers from the beautiful Cumberland Valley were hur- 
rying their cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs in droves across the river. The 
banks were sending their money to Philadelphia and New York. The 
railroads were removing all their cars and engines ; housewives secreting 
their silver spoons and candlesticks. Tlie excitement was very wild 
when a long train of army-wagons came thundering across the long bridge 
driven by teamsters covered with dust — a portion of the train which 
Milroy had sent from Winchester — all hurrying as if the Confederates 
Avere close upon them. The next morning some of the militia began to 
arrive — farmers and their sons, clerks from stores, in citizens' dress. It 
was very laughable to see men wearing long linen coats — "dusters" — and 
"stove-pipe" hats, armed wdth old muskets, mounted as cavalrymen, 
riding pell-mell through the streets. Hundreds of men were at work 
throwing up intrenchments. 

Going from Harrisburg to Baltimore, I found another scene of excite- 
ment. General Schenck was in command. A great force of negroes were 
at work building breastworks and barricades on the roads west of the city, 
using hogsheads of tobacco, filling barrels with earth, piling up old wag- 
ons, carts, and boxes ; cutting down trees, and placing them in front of the 
breastworks ; planting heavy guns on the hills, to command all the ave- 
nues of approach. 

Twenty-six months before, the Massachusetts troops had fought their 
way through Baltimore ; but now the people were arming for the fight, 
and the negroes, as they threw up the yellow earth with their shovels and 
pounded it down upon the breastworks with mallets, were singing, 



176 MARCHING TO VICTORY, 

"John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave; 
His soul is marching on." 

Only four years had passed since the execution of John Brown ; but 
the nation, the great ideas underlying it, had moved ou with a rapidity 
hardly paralleled in history. 



NOTES TO CHAPTER IX. 

') Richmond Examiner, May 21, 1863. 

^) Longstreet, " Annals of the War," p. 416. 

^) Richmond Examiner, May 30, 1863. 

*) Hotze to Benjamin, August 4, 1863. 

^) Idem., June 6, 1863. 

°) Mason to Benjamin, March 31, 1863. 

') Slidell to Benjamin, June 18, 1863. 

') Idem., June 25, 1863. 

') Conversation between Author and Confederate soldiers. 

") Richtnond Examiner, June 12, 1863. 



CONFEDERATE NORTHWARD MARCH. 177 



CHAPTER X. 

CONFEDERATE NORTHWARD MARCH. 

ON the morning of June 16th Jenkins's brigade of Confederate cavahy 
advanced from the Potomac into Pennsylvania, through Greencas- 
tle, reaching Chainbersburg at midnight. Confederate scouting parties 
went out in all directions collecting what cattle and horses they could find, 
also all the negroes, sending them into Virginia to be sold as slaves. The 
government of which Jefferson Davis was the head was to be established 
on African slavery — upon the idea that a negro was to be classed with 
horses and cattle, having a property value. It mattered not that the ne- 
groes of Pennsylvania were free ; they were seized and sent South. It is 
not probable that General Jenkins, or any one else, was greatly enriched 
by the seizure ; possibly few, if any, of the negroes were sold, for slave 
property in Virginia was rapidly diminishing in value ; but the fact re- 
mains that the spirit of slaverj'^, the fundamental idea underlying the 
Confederate Government, was displayed by these videttes of the Confeder- 
ate army. Jenkins, having obtained a large amount of supplies, fell back 
to join Ewell, who was at Williamsport. 

A. P. Hill was marching from Fredericksburg to Culpeper ; Long- 
street advancing up the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge. 

On the Upper Potomac General Imboden, with a brigade of Confed- 
erate cavalry, was entering Cumberland and destroying the Baltimore and 
Ohio Railroad to prevent General Kelley, who was in West Virginia with 
several thousand troops, from coming east. 

General Hooker could not determine what Lee intended to do. Gen- 
eral Halleck, with all the telegraph wires running into his office in the War 
Department, could not make out whether Lee was intending to sweep 
down upon Baltimore or move towards Washington. The Union army 
was between the Bull Run Mountains and Washington — at Manassas, Cen- 
treville, Drainsville — covering Washington, ready to move across the Poto- 
mac the moment Lee's movements should indicate his line of advance. 

At Harper's Ferry, on Maryland Heights, in a position which Lee 
12 



178 MARCHING TO VICTOEY. 

could not hope successfully to assail, were ten thousand troops under Gen- 
eral French, of little use where they were, but which might be used to 
excellent advantage by General Hooker. They were not under him, but 
wei'e under General Schenck's orders, whose headquarters were at Balti- 
more. General Hooker asked that they might be included in his com- 
mand, but the request was refused by General Halleck. 

In the forts around Washington were thirty thousand trooj)s, under 
General Heintzelman, to hold the city against any attack. 

Going down to Yorktown, we see General Keyes with fifteen thousand 
men in a position to threaten Richmond. 

At daybreak, June 17th, the Union cavahy, under Pleasonton, was at 
Manassas Junction. He moved towards Aldie, intending to push north- 
west to the Blue Ridge to discover what Lee was doing. Kilpatrick, with 
three of his regiments, led the column up the turnpike. The other regi- 
ment of his brigade — the First Rhode Island, two hundred and eighty men, 
under Colonel Duffie — was directed to go through Thoroughfare Gap in 
the Bull Run Mountains, to camp at night at Middleburg, five miles west 
of Aldie. 

The Confederate cavalry at the same hour was moving east towards 
Aldie. 

It was two o'clock in the afternoon when Kilpatrick's scouts, advanc- 
ing towards Aldie, came upon Confederate pickets. The Second New 
York charged upon them, driving them swiftly through the little vil- 
lage. 

The Confederates were of the First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth 
Virginia. The first three were feeding their horses at Mr. Carter's barn, a 
mile and a half from Aldie. There was quick saddling, bridling, and form- 
ing in column. 

A short distance west of Aldie the turnpike divides — one branch run- 
ning north-west to Snicker's Gap, the other west to Middleburg. Between 
the roads there is a hill upon which Munford, commanding the Confeder- 
ates, planted his artillery. His sharp-shooters were behind a fence which 
runs from road to road. 

A little stream crosses the road at the foot of the hill, and there is a 
mill on the road leading to Middleburg. There is a meadow at the foot of 
the hill and several hay-stacks. The Union cavalry, to get at Munford, 
must either charge up the turnpike swept by his cannon, or descend the 
steep bank, cross the river in the face of his sharp-shooters, or make a fiank 
movement. 

KiljDatrick saw that he could not charge up the Middleburg road ; that 



CONFEDERATE NORTHWARD MARCH. 



179 




the troops would be annihilated ; but the Second New York rushed upon 
the Confederate skirmishers and captured several. 

Kilpatrick's cannon poured their fire upon the troops along the Snick- 
er's Gap road, creating confusion in Munford's works. The Fourth New 
York, Colonel Cesnola, made a charge. For some breach of orders he was 
under arrest ; his sword had been taken from him, but Kilpatrick handed 
it back in token of his bravery. He was wounded in the melee, fell from 
his horse, and was taken prisoner. 

The First Maine, belonging to the first brigade, was sent forward by 
General Gregg. Kilpatrick ral- 
lied his men, and the fight went 
on. The Union troops attacked 
with great vigor. 

" I never saw men show bet- 
ter spirit," writes Colonel Mun- 
ford, praising their bravery. 

Kilpatrick's persistent attack 
was gradually folding back Mun- 
ford's left flank when, to the sur- 
prise of the Union troops, the Con- 
federate regiments retired towards 
Middleburg. • 

The reason for their sudden 
abandonment of so strong a position was the arrival of Captain Frank 
Robertson from Middleburg with an order from General Stuart to fall 
back to Rector's Cross-roads. 

The Rhode Islanders under Duffie liad passed through Thoroughfare 
Gap, and were advancing towards Middleburg. 

They were within two miles of the town when they came upon the 
pickets sent out by Stuart to keep watch of the roads. There were car- 
bine-shots, a clattering of hoofs, a charge into the town, where Stuart was 
enjoying the hospitality of his friends, but he leaped into his saddle and 
escaj)ed. 

Duffie had obeyed orders. He was in Middleburg, where he was to 
stop for the night. He was well aware that he might be attacked in town, 
and the soldiers barricaded the roads, sending out pickets in all direc- 
tions. 

Stuart halted, sent back his skirmishers to begin the attack, and sent 
Captain Robertson with the order to Munford, at Aldie, to inform him 
that a large body of Union cavalry was in his rear, and that he must re- 



MAP OF CAVALRY ENGAGEMENTS AT ALDIE 
AND UPPERVILLE. 



180 MARCHING TO VICTORY, 

treat. Other couriers went upon the gallop with orders to W. H. F. Lee 
and Robertson to close in upon the enemy. 

'Colonel Duffie had been ordered, when he reached Middleburg, to send 
word to Pleasonton. Captain Allen, with two men, started with the de- 
spatch at five o'clock down the main road, but came upon the Fourth 
Virginia Cavalry retreating from Aldie. Robertson turned through the 
woods and fields, running against Confederates in every direction. The 
sun went down, and in the gathering darkness he reached Little River, 
came upon five Confederates, charged upon them, and compelled them to 
flee. He followed the river a long distance till he reached the main road, 
came upon the Union pickets, and was safe. It had been a hazardous, 
exciting ride. Kilpatrick read the despatches. He knew the danger 
closing upon Duffie, but his horses were broken down by tlie long, hard 
march and the battle with Munford. He sent the despatch to Gregg, who 
carried it to Pleasonton ; but Pleasonton issued no orders. 

Duffie waited through the long night hours with listening ears to hear 
the tramping of the expected reinforcements, which never came. Lie 
might have retreated, for Robertson had not yet closed the road over 
which he came. He was a foreigner, born in France, educated in the 
military schools, under strict discipline to obey orders implicitly. What 
rebuke would he not receive from Pleasonton were he to retreat ! He 
resolved to hold his ground till reinforcements arrived, not knowing that 
they would never be sent. 

He placed most of his troops in a grove outside of the town. The men 
were ordered to speak only in whisjDcrs. The pickets were out upon the 
roads. Tlie last gleam of light was fading from the west. Two com- 
panies had dismounted, and their horses were tied to trees in a grove, the 
men lying behind a stone wall bordering the road, across which they had 
felled a tree. With loaded carbines they waited. As they looked down 
the road, peering through the darkness, they beheld the advancing Con- 
federate columns, four men abreast. There burst forth a line of light 
from sixty carbines. Riders and horses went down in a heap. The 
Rhode Islanders did not stop to load, but out with their revolvers and 
fired into the struggling mass. The Confederate officers rallied the men, 
and again they charged, but only to be cut down again by the terrible 
volley. 

The troops attacking Duffie were the Fourtli and Fifth North Caro- 
lina, new regiments, numbering nearly one thousand, and this was their 
first battle. 

Colonel Duffie makes his way two miles in the darkness, then waits for 



CONFEDERATE NORTHWARD MARCH. 183 

the morning. His horses have had nothing to eat since they left Manassas 
Junction. The animals are jaded and hungry, and the men stand by their 
heads to keep them from whinnying. 

Daj'light comes, and the men leap into their saddles. The Confeder- 
ate scouts discover them and fire a volley. Dufiie is expecting to hear 
Kilpatrick's guns or the tramping of his brigade, but discovers instead 
that "W. H. F. Lee's brigade, under Colonel Chambliss, is intercepting his 
retreat, while Kobertson is ready to fall upon his rear. With sabres 
gleaming he charges upon the Confederates, and gains the road once 
more. The Rhode Islanders move on two miles towards Hopewell Gap, 
Avhen they hear the clatter of hoofs behind them. The road is narrow 
and rugged. They cannot turn and face the oncoming foe. They put 
spurs to their horses, and the column goes pell-mell along the road, bullets 
whizzing past them, striking among them ; the Rhode Islanders, turning 
in their saddles, sending shots in the faces of the Yirginians. Horses go 
down, and the riders are trampled by those behind. For six miles the 
Confederates push on — the ranks of the Rhode Islanders dwindling 
every moment. Some, when their horses fall, leap over the fences and 
secrete themselves till the Confederates are gone, then make their way 
over the mountains eastward. 

Color-sergeant Robbins, finding that he would be captured, tore the 
standard from its staff, threw the staff away, thrust the colors into his 
bosom, was taken prisoner, but escaped. He made his way back to head- 
quarters, took the colors from his bosom and waved them above his head — 
all the soldiers around swinging their hats at the sight. He received a 
lieutenant's commission for his heroic service. 

When the Confederates gave up the chase all that were left in the col- 
umn were Colonel Dufiie and twenty-seven men. The brave colonel gazed 
at the little party with the tears rolling down his cheeks. 

" My poor boys ! My poor boys ! All gone ! All gone !" were the 
pathetic words wrung from his heart. 

They were not all lost, however, for Lieutenant-colonel Thompson and 
eighteen men cut their way through the Confederate lines. Lieutenant 
Brown and several soldiers secreted themselves in the woods till the next 
day, when Pleasonton's advance enabled them to escape. 

Out of the two hundred and eighty, six were killed, twenty wounded, 
and seventy captured. 

On the morning of the 19th we see Stuart forming Robertson's and 
Chambliss's brigades near Middleburg, on a plain, with a grove in the cen- 
tre of the lines, waiting for the advance of Gregg's two brigades moving 



184 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

along the Aldie road. Tlie Confederate artillery were on a hill in the 
rear. A portion of the Union troops dismounted and came down upon 
their flank, giving so hot a fire that the line was thrown into confusion. 
The Union centre charged upon those in the grove, driving them, but 
were driven in turn by the Ninth Virginia, in reserve, and by the artil- 
lery fire. Grregg reformed in the woods. Stuart attacked again and 
again, losing many men, and was compelled at last to give up the effort 
and retire to another position. 

Munford, on the road leading to Snickers Gap, was compelled to fall 
back before Buford. 

The morning of the 21st dawned. General Stuart had been reinforced 
by the arrival of Jones's and Hampton's brigades. He sent Jones's north 
to Munford to hold the road to Snicker's Gap, and formed his other three 
brigades at Hector's. 

General Gregg had been reinforced by the Union infantry of General 
Vincent's brigade. Gregg was to push Stuart towards Ashby's Gap while 
Buford folded back his left flank. It was eight o'clock in the morning 
when the Union troops opened fire upon Stuart, who had formed his line 
along Cromwell's Creek. Stuart's artillery replied, but was badly cut 
up by Pleasonton's guns. Vincent advanced so rapidly that Stuart was 
obliged to abandon two of his cannon. 

Stuart rallied his men, but was again compelled to retreat, sending 
word to Jones and Munford to fall back to Upperville, abandoning the 
road to Snicker's Gap and concentrating his whole force towards Ashby's. 

No one can say just w^hat occurred in the charges and countercharges 
during the day. Men and horses went down in heaps. There were vol- 
leys from carbines, then a rattling fire from revolvers, gleaming of sabres, 
clouds of dust, melees in narrow roads, along stone-walls and fences, bloody 
encounters — a loss of nearly five hundred on each side ; but when night 
came, Stuart had been pushed back several miles from his ground of the 
morning. 

It was the second great cavalry battle of the war. 

Stuart, finding that Pleasonton had a brigade of infantry, sent word to 
Longstreet, who detailed McLaws's division to assist him ; but it did not 
arrive in season to take part in the fight. 

Pleasonton, having accomplished what he was ordered to do, went back 
to Aldie. 

General Stuart had been pushed back from Aldie. It was not a pleas- 
ant reflection. Possibly he was feeling the criticisms of the Richmond 
newspapers over the engagement at Brandy Station. He found that the 



CONFEDERATE NORTHWARD MARCH. 185 

Union army blocked the route which he had intended to take northward. 
An idea came to him — possibly suggested by Colonel Mosby — to ride 
round the Union army, as he had done twice when it was commanded by 
McClellan. He was an enterprising officer, and loved to do startling things. 
Such a movement would go far to retrieve the failures of the lost engage- 
ments. He submitted the plan to General Lee, who was at Berryville, in 
the Shenandoah, where, on the evening of the 21st, he wrote an order to 
General Ewell to march to Harrisburg and take possession of the capital if 
possible. General Ewell was at "Williamsport, and his troops on the 22d 
began to cross the river.(') 

The night of the 23d was dark and cheerless. General Stuart, near 
Rector's Cross-roads, was asleep beneath a tree, the rain-drops pattering 
upon liim, when a messenger reached him from General Lee informing 
him that Ewell was moving towards Harrisburg, that Early's division was 
to cross the mountains and march to York. These Lee's instructions as to 
Stuart's course : 

" If General Hooker remains inactive, you can leave two brigades to 
watch him and withdraw with the otlier three ; but should he not ajDpear 
to be moving northward, I think you had better withdraw this side of the 
mountains to-morrow night, cross at Shepherdstown next day, and move 
over to Fredericktown. You will, however, be able to judge whether you 
can pass around his army without hinderance, doing him all the damage 
you can, and cross the river east of the mountains. In either case, after 
crossing the river, you must move on and feel the riglit of Ewell's troops, 
give instructions to the two brigades left behind to watch the flank and 
rear of the army, and (in event of the enemy leaving their front) retire 
from the mountains west of the Shenandoah, leaving sufficient pickets to 
guard the passes.^ ) I think the sooner you cross into Maryland after to- 
morrow, the better." 

At midnight of the 24th we see three Confederate brigades — Hamp- 
ton's, Fitz-Hugh Lee's, and Cliambliss's — moving eastward from the town 
of Salem, through the Bull Run Mountains ; but at Haymarket they come 
upon the Second Corps of the Union army, under Hancock, marching 
northward. The artillery opens, the Union infantry wheel into line of 
battle, and Stuart is compelled to turn about, recross the mountain, and 
when night comes he is back nearly to his starting-point. A day has 
been lost — a very provoking delay to an impatient commander. 

General Ewell, with two divisions — Rodes's and Johnson's — were in 
Chambersburg, with Jenkins's cavalry. General Ewell had lost a leg in 
the battle of Groveton, and rode in a carriage when on the march, but 



186 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

in battle was strapped to his saddle. He was well acquainted with the 
country through which he was marching and around Harrisburg. Before 
the war, he had surveyed a railroad, and had been stationed at the Gov- 
ernment barracks in Carlisle, and had been in Chambersburg many times. 
He demanded of the town authorities a great amount of supplies — five 
thousand suits of clothing, ten tons of leather, five tons of horseshoes, 
five thousand bushels of oats, three tons of lead, one thousand curry- 
com])s, all the powder and percussion-caps in town, one hundred and fifty 
thousand pounds of bread, five hundred barrels of fiour, and twenty-five 
of sauerkraut, with beans, vinegar, sugar, and other things. They searched 
houses and stores. One of the officers. Major Todd, of Kentucky, a 
brother of the wife of Abraham Lincoln,^) who had joined the Confed- 
erates, although his State had not seceded, attempted to go into Doctor 
Richards's cellar, but was confronted by Miss Richards, the doctor's brave- 
hearted daughter, who seized an axe. " I will split your head open !" she 
said, and Major Todd thought it prudent not to go any farther. Gen- 
eral Ewell had a large package of Confederate treasury -notes, and paid 
liberally for all supplies. General Lee had issued strict orders against 
plundering. He knew that there was nothing more detrimental to disci- 
pline than to permit soldiers to seize whatever they might fancy. The 
Confederate money was worthless, but there was a form of purchase by 
the proper authority which preserved the discipline of the army. Gen- 
eral Ewell was very strict. Oflicers who became intoxicated were de- 
prived of their commissions and put into the ranks as privates. 

On the morning of June 26tli Rodes's and Johnson's divisions moved 
northward, while the troops of A. P. Hill arrived at Chambersburg. 
The whole of the Confederate army, with the exception of Stuart's cav- 
alry, had crossed the Potomac. General Hill was well acquainted with 
the country, for he too had been at Carlisle before the war. He knew 
many of the citizens, and asked about them. While he was resting in 
the public square the citizens saw a man wearing a suit of gray, with 
stars on the collar, sitting at rest in his saddle — a gentleman with a be- 
nevolent and kindly face with a shade of sadness and anxiety, accompa- 
nied by a large number of officers — ride up the street. It was General 
Lee, who talked with General HillQ a few minutes and then rode east- 
ward to Mr. Messersmith's farm, where his headquarters were established 
in a beautiful grove. 

While General Lee was going into camp Early's division was pass- 
ing through Gettysburg. General Early demanded from the inhabitants 
sixty barrels of flour, seven thousand pounds of bacon, and twelve hun- 



CONFEDERATE NORTHWARD MARCH. 



187 



dred pounds of sugar ; he wanted also forty bushels of onions, five hundred 
hats, and one thousand pairs of shoes. If he could not have these he must 
have ten thousand dollars in money. As he was ordered to proceed at 
once to York, he could not stop to collect the articles ; besides, York was 
a much larger town, situated in a rich and fertile section of the country. 







'-V> y-^ 



GENERAL KETNOLDS. 



where he could make larger reprisals, with the probability that the people 
would comply with his demand, rather than that he should burn the place. 
While they were marching through the town, and while General Lee 
was resting beneath the grateful shade of the oaks near Chambersburg, 
Mr. Hnber, of Chambersburg, was making his way along secluded roads, 
eluding the Confederates, obtaining horses, riding fast, reaching the rail- 



188 MAECHING TO VICTORY. 

road, and at daylight on the morning of tlie 27th he is in the capital at 
Harrisburg, narrating to Governor Curtin what he has seen, and the tel- 
egraph is conveying the information to Washington, and out to General 
Hooker.(^) 

The army of the Potomac, the while, had been moving. General 
Hooker was swinging it on a much smaller circle than that of the Con- 
federates. He was covering Washington until he could see just what 
General Lee was intending to do. He was moving his troops northward, 
east of the South Mountain range, holding all the passes. On Wednes- 
day, the 25th, he placed the First, Third, and Eleventh Corps under the 
command of General Reynolds, constituting the left wing of the army. 
They crossed the Potomac at Edwards's Ferry. While they were cross- 
ing, the Second Corps was turning Stuart back at Haymarket. All the 
troops were in position to cross the river. 

Saturday, June 2Tth, General Hooker was at Frederick. The three 
corps under Reynolds were at Middletown. All the troops were north 
of the Potomac. General Lee was resting beneath his tent in the grove 
at Chambersburg. All of Longstreet's and Hill's troops were near him. 
Early was on the march towards York, Rodes's division at Carlisle, John- 
son's between Chambersburg and Carlisle. (^) General Stuart had started 
once more, riding south-east around the southern end of Bull Run Mount- 
ains, crossing the railroad from Alexandria to Culpeper at Bristoe Station, 
going on in the same direction, crossing the Occoquon River — marching 
till he was almost within sight of the Potomac River — then turning north, 
crossing the Occoquon again west of Mount Yernon, passing through 
Fairfax Court-house, where Hampton's brigade came upon a squadron of 
Union cavalry, about one hundred men, under Major Remington. Most 
of the Union cavalrymen were captured. It had been a long, circuitous 
march to gain the rear of Hooker's army. Had Stuart waited at Rec- 
tor's Cross-roads, he could have been at the same place on the evening of 
the 27th and saved a day's march, for the LTnion army had moved on. 
Stuart reached the Potomac fifteen miles above Washington ; but the 
river had risen, and the water was so deep that the artillerymen were 
obliged to take the ammunition out of the chests and hold the cartridges 
in their arms while crossing. All through the nio^ht the briojades were 
plashing through the water, the rear -guard gaining the Maryland shore 
just at daylight on Sunday morning. 

I was in Frederick, arriving there before any of the troops, with the 
exception of the cavalry — ten thousand, under Pleasonton. There was no 
halting of the cavalry, but the great column moved on through the streets 



CONFEDEKATE NORTHWARD MARCH. 189 

and out upon the roads leading northward towards Pennsylvania. Then 
came the Reserve Artillery, jarring the ground with the rumbling of the 
carriages. General Hooker had so directed the movements of the infan- 
try that they did not enter the town, but were moving either east or west 
of it — all towards the north. 

While the cannon were rolling over the pavements there came the 
pealing of church-bells calling the people to worship. The birds were 
singing in the orchards, the air fragrant with flowers ; upon all the sur- 
rounding hills the wheat was ripening. It was a memorable Sunday morn- 
ing, for a special train had arrived in the night from Washington bringing 
Colonel Hardie with a letter to General Hooker and another to General 
George G. Meade, who was commanding the Fifth Corps. General Hooker 
had again asked that General French, who was at Harper's Ferry with 
eleven thousand men, be placed under his command, to be joined to the 
Twelfth Corps, commanded by General Slocum, that the force of more 
than twenty thousand men might be sent to gain the rear of General Lee 
and cut his communications with Yirginia. General Halleck would not 
consent that the troops under General French should be withdrawn from 
Harper's Ferry; he considered it a place of great importance. General 
Hooker thereupon had asked to be relieved of any further command of 
the army, and President Lincoln had acceded to his request, and had ap- 
pointed General Meade, who was a native of Pennsylvania, and who had 
rendered excellent service as a division and corps commander. 

I saw General Meade a few moments after the appointment had been 
placed in his hands. It was a surprise. ISTo one had thought that there 
could be such an event. It was a position of great responsibility which 
had come to him. He knew nothing as to what General Hooker's plans 
were ; he only knew that the army was marching ; that before many days 
there must be a great battle. The army, aside from the troops of his own 
corps, knew very little about him. He was standing with bowed head and 
downcast eyes, his slouched hat drawn down, shading his features. He 
seemed lost in thought. His uniform was the worse for wear from hard 
service ; there was dust upon his boots. As a faithful soldier, loyal to 
duty, he accepted the great responsibility ; while General Hooker, shaking 
hands with him and with his ofiicers, with the tears coursing down his 
cheeks, bade them farewell, entered the cars, and went to Baltimore, as 
he had been directed. Patriotic, tender, and pathetic were the words of 
Hooker to the army in his brief farewell : 

" Impressed with the belief that my usefulness as commander of the 
Army of the Potomac is impaired, I part from it, yet not without the 



190 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

deepest emotions. The sorrow of parting with the comrades of so many- 
battles is relieved by the conviction that the courage and devotion of this 
army will never cease nor fail ; that it will yield to my successor, as it has 
to me, a willing and hearty suj)port. With the earnest prayer that the 
triumph of this army may bring successes worthy of it and the nation, I 
bid it farewell." 

Dignified, modest, and unassuming the words of General Meade in his 
short address : 

" The country looks to this army to relieve it from devastation and the 
disgrace of hostile invasion. Whatever fatigues and sacrifices we may be 
called ujDon to undergo, let us have in view constantly the magnitude of 
the interests involved, and let each man determine to do his duty, leaving 
to an all-controlling Providence the decision of this contest." 

General Meade made a tender and graceful tribute to General Hooker, 
" whose name must ever be conspicuous in the history of the achievements 
of the army." 

Notwithstanding the defeat at Chancellorsville, the soldiers liked Gen- 
eral Hooker, and he had regained in a good degree their confidence ; but 
their loyalty was not to men, it was to the flag, to what it represented — 
the government of the people, the highest advancement which man had 
attained ; and so, without complaint at the action of President Lincoln in 
appointing General Meade, they moved on in obedience to orders, knowing 
that every step brought them nearer to the Confederate army. 

General Halleck did not like General Hooker, and had refused his re- 
quest regarding the troops at Harper's Ferry, but, upon the appointment 
of General Meade, those troops were placed under his command. General 
Hooker remained at Baltimore three days, but hearing nothing from Gen- 
eral Halleck, went to Washington, where he was summarily arrested by 
General Halleck, because he had not obtained permission to do so. The 
course pursued by General Halleck, in granting to Meade what he had 
refused to Hooker, and in ordering Hooker's arrest, aroused much indig- 
nation throughout the country. 

During the evening of Sunday' a wagon-train, loaded with supplies, was 
moving west from Eockville, in Maryland, when the teamsters saw a body 
of Confederate cavalry swooping down upon them. It was Stuart, who 
captured one hundred and twenty-five wagons, A little later, the tele- 
graph between Washington and Frederick ceased to work. Stuart was 
cutting the wires. The Confederate cavalrymen were within a few miles 
of Washington and Baltimore ; but Stuart, instead of menacing those cities, 
was moving north with the captured train, reaching the Baltimore and 



CONFEDERATE NORTHWARD MARCH, 



191 




GENERAL MEADE. 



Ohio Railroad Monday morning, tearing up the track and burning a bridge, 
and then hastening on. 

Sunday was not a day of rest to Early's Confederate division, which was 
entering York, Pennsylvania, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, demanding 
five hundred barrels of flour, several tons of bread, thirty thousand bushels 
of corn, one thousand hats, one thousand pairs of shoes, a great variety of 
articles, and one hundred thousand dollars in money, to be delivered at 
four o'clock, or the town would be set on fire. No resistance had been 
offered. One of the citizens had gone out several miles to inform Early 
that he could take peaceable possession of the place. The citizens could 
obtain only twenty-eight thousand dollars. Early thereupon issued an 
address, exalting his humanity in not setting the town on fire. He trusted 
that the humane treatment they had received at his hands would induce 
them " to shake off the revolting tyranny which they were undergoing." 



192 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



Chaml)ersliur.j 




MOVEMENT OF UNION ARMY TO GETTYSBURG. 



General Gordon's brigade of Georgians puslied on to Wrightsville thir- 
teen miles on the western bank of the Susquehanna. The Georgians 
swung their hats when they beheld the gleaming water of the great river. 
They were to seize the wooden bridge, a mile long, which spanned the 
stream between Wrightsville and Columbia. General Early was thinking 
of crossing the river, passing through Columbia, and sweeping up the east- 
ern bank thirteen miles farther, while Jenkins's cavalry and Rodes's divi- 
sion advanced from Carlisle, thus seizing Harrisburg. But Colonel Frick, 
of the Pennsylvania troops, was at Wrightsville. He had picked up a few 

Union soldiers who had been in 
battle, and who were not to be 
frightened by the wliirring of 
shot and shell. He had some 
militia, and among them a com- 
pany of colored troops. The cit- 
izens of Columbia were hard at 
work throwing up intrenchments 
west of Wrightsville ; they had 
no cannon. Colonel Frick was 
to hold the place as long as he 
could, then retreat, blowing up a span of the bridge. Early planted his 
cannon at half-past four. For more than an hour the men under Colonel 
Frick held their ground, when, seeing that the Confederates, who outnum- 
bered them nearly ten to one, were about to gain his flanks. Colonel Frick 
ordered his men to retreat across the bridge. The fuses were lighted ; the 
powder exploded, but did not blow up the span, and then the bridge was 
set on fire. It was a magnificent spectacle — the great wooden structure 
burning through the evening, illumining all the surrounding country. 

Monday morning, the 29th, dawned. General Lee was still encamped 
in the grove near Chambersburg. He was wondering what had become 
of General Stuart. He did not know w^iere he was, neither did he know 
the whereabouts of the Union army. A physician of Chambersburg who 
went to see him about a horse that had been taken from him, says : 

" Never have I seen so much emotion depicted upon a human coun- 
tenance. With his hand at times clutching his hair, and with contracted 
brow, he w^ould walk with rapid strides for a few rods, and then, as if he 
bethought himself of his actions, he would, with a sudden jerk, produce 
an entire change in his features and demeanor, and cast an inquiring gaze 
on me, only to be followed in a moment by the same contortions of face 
and agitation of person. "Q 



CONFEDERATE NORTHWAED MARCH. 



193 




BURNING OF COLUMBIA BRIDGE. 



General Lee, witli an instinct common to officers and soldiers alike in 
]>otli armies, knew that a great and decisive hour was approaching. He 
was in a strange country, experiencing such difficulties as all the Union 
commanders had encountered in Virginia and Tennessee and Mississippi. 
He had made preparations for a movement to Harrisburg ; he was igno- 
rant of the whereabouts of the Union army, and supposed it was still in 
Virginia. (') lie had relied upon Stuart to keep him informed as to the 
movements of the Union troops, but had received no information. Many 
Southern writers have censured Stuart for the line of march taken by 
him, claiming that by going round in rear of the Union army he placed 
himself in a position where it was impossible for him to communicate 
with General Lee ; but we are not to lose sight of the fact that Stuart 
left two brigades, Robertson's and Jones's, to watch the passes of the 
Blue Ridge, and that they were in position to send word to Lee ; besides, 
Imboden's large brigade and Jenkins's brigade were near at hand, and 
portions of them might have been sent east of the mountains to watch 
for any advance of the Union army. 

Li Virginia General Lee had always received quick information of 
the movements of the Union army from the people as well as from his 
cavahy ; but now he was in a country where the people were sending 
information of his movements, but who had no information to give in 
regard to the movements of the Union army. 

It was ten o'clock on Monday evening when the pickets of Long- 
street's corps saw a man approaching their lines, whose movements were 
13 



194 MARCHING TO VICTOEY. 

SO suspicious that they arrested hira.(°) His clothes were covered witli 
mud — he was very dirty, as if lie had been on a long tramp. It was the 
scout Harrison, whom Longstreet had sent into the Union lines from 
Culpeper (p. 174). He had been with the Union army all the way up to 
Frederick. When he saw the troops entering that town he had started 
to find his commander, and was tired out by his long tramping. General 
Longstreet was asleep, but was awakened to hear his story, and sent the 
scout to General Lee. It was not far from midnight when the scout re- 
hearsed his tale to the Confederate commander-in-chief in his tent beneath 
the oaks, just out from Chambersburg. 

We come to an interesting hour. It was startling information. Gen- 
eral Lee did not know that the Union army had crossed the Potomac. He 
had issued orders to move to Harrisburg. Ewell, with two divisions, was 
advancing down the valley, and was at Carlisle, thirty miles away. Early 
was at York, on the banks of the Susquehanna, sixty miles distant. He 
did not know where Stuart was — had heard nothing from him since 
leaving Virginia, but at that hour Stuart was nearly sixty miles away, 
while Robertson's and Jones's cavalry brigades were still in Virginia. 
" The information changed," says Longstreet, " the whole plan of the 
campaign." 

Before daylight, couriers were riding north to Carlisle with orders 
for Ewell to turn back, and southward into Virginia for Robertson and 
Jones to hurry to Chambersburg.C") Orders were issued to Hill to move 
over the mountain along the turnpike towards Gettysburg, and for Long- 
street to follow. It was a movement for the concentration of the army. 

When General Meade assumed command of the Union army on Sun- 
day, he only knew that General Lee was in the vicinity of Chambersburg. 
On Monday he learned that Early was at Wrightsville, that Ewell was 
threatening Harrisburg, and that a large force of Confederates was at 
Chambersburg. He could only surmise what Lee intended to do, and 
must so move that he could concentrate his army at any point ; to that 
end the different corps moved north, spreading out like a fan ; the Sixth 
Corps took the road to Westminster, with Gregg's division of cavalry, to 
swing out uj)on the right flank, while Buford's division hovered on the 
left, the troopers riding up the by-ways amid the mountains to ascertain 
the movements of the Confederates. 

Like two storm-clouds the two armies, on the last day of June, were 
approaching each other. I was riding with General Hancock, command- 
ing the Second Corps. We came to a farm-house, where, by the gate-way, 
with roses in bloom around them and pinks perfuming the air, stood a 



CONFEDERATE NORTHWARD MARCH. 195 

mother and her daughters, with loaves of bread in baskets and jars of 
apple - butter — the mother cutting great slices of bread, the daughters 
spreading them with the sauce and presenting them to the soldiers. 

" Hurrah for the mother ! three cheers for the girls !" shouted the 
soldiers, as they took the luscious gifts and hastened on. 

I joined the Fifth Corps. While passing through the- town of Liberty 
a farmer rode into the village. The load in his wagon was covered with 
a white cloth. 

" What have ye got to sell, old fellow ? Gingerbread, eh ?" said a sol- 
dier, raising the cloth and peeping in. " What do ye ask ?" 

" I haven't any to sell." 

" Haven't any to sell! What are ye here for?" 

The farmer made no reply. 

" See here, old fellow, won't ye sell me a hunk of your gingerbread ?" 
said the soldier, producing an old wallet. 

"No." 

" Well, you are a mean old cuss. It would be serving you right to tip 
up your old cart. Here we are marching all night and all day to protect 
your property and fight for ye. We haven't had any breakfast, and may 
not get any dinner. You are a set of mean cusses round here, I reckon." 

The farmer stood up on his wagon-seat, took off the table-cloths, and 
said : 

" I didn't bring my bread here to sell. My wife and daughters sat up 
all night to bake it for you, and you are welcome to all I've got, and I 
wish I had ten times as much. Help yourselves." 

"See here, my friend, I take back all the hard words I said about you," 
said the soldier, shaking hands with the farmer, who sat on his wagon witli 
tears rolling down his cheeks. 

At daybreak on this last day of June we see Buford's division of 
Union cavalry, Gamble's and Devin's brigades, leaving their bivouac at 
the little village of Fountain Dale amid the mountains, and moving north. 
Through the night the Union pickets have seen lights gleaming in the 
distance around the town of Fairfield — the fires of Davis's brigade of 
Heth's division of Hill's Confederate infantry ; and General Biiford dis- 
covers that the Confederates are passing through the mountain defiles, 
and moving north-east in the direction of Gettysburg. He has but one 
battery, and instead of attacking, moves south-east to Emmettsburg, near 
which he finds the First Corps, under General Reynolds, who commands 
his own, the Third, and Eleventh Corps, forming now the left wing of the 
army. 



106 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



" Move to Gettysburg and hold it," is tlie order of Reynolds, and we 
see the cavalry going north over a turnpike, passing through Gettysburg, 
turning west and unsaddling their horses in the fields and beautiful groves 
around the Tlieological Seminary, driving before them a small body of 
Pettigrew's Confederate infantry which was moving east into Gettysburg 
to obtain supplies, but which fell back to Cashtown, sending word to Hill 
that the Union cavalry was at Gettysburg, 

At this evening hour on the last day of June General Meade is at 
Taneytown, thirteen miles south-east of Gettysburg. The First Corps 




POSITION OF UNION AND CONFEDERATE ARMIES, SUNSET, JUNE 30, 1863. 



of his army, under General Reynolds, is resting at Marsh Run, seven 
miles soutli of Gettysburg, the soldiers boiling their coffee beneath the 
shade of the trees, the artillerymen watering their horses in the stream. 
The Eleventh Corps, under General Howard, is in the fields around Em- 
mettsburg, three miles farther soutli, on the boundary between Mary- 
land and Pennsylvania. The Tliird Corps, under General Sickles, is 
at Bridgeport, five miles south-east of Emmettsburg, on the road to Ta- 
neytown. 

The Second Corps (General Hancock) is witli General Meade at Taney- 
town ; the Twelfth Corps (General Slocum) is at Littlestown, six miles 
north-east of Taneytown ; the Fifth Corps (General Sykes) at Union Mills, 
seven miles east of Taneytown ; the Sixth Corps (General Sedgwick) at 
Manchester, seven miles still farther east, thirty-two miles from Gettysburg. 



CONFEDERATE NORTHWARD MARCH, 197 

On the morning of the 30th of June Ewell's three Confederate divis- 
ions started towards Gettysburg, Rodes's and Johnson's marching south 
from Carlisle ; Early south-west over the turnpike from York ; march- 
ing so rapidly that in the evening they were at Heidlercburg, only ten 
miles from Gettysburg. Hill had crossed the mountains with Ileth's 
and Pender's divisions. Anderson's division was on the western slope 
at Greenwood. Longstreet moved to Greenwood with Hood's and 
McLaws's divisions — ten miles east of Chambersburg — leaving Pick- 
ett's division to guard the long trains of supplies and ammunition. Gen- 
eral Lee had left the grove at Chambersburg, and was at Greenwood 
with Longstreet, his trusted lieutenant. The Confederate army, aside 
from the cavalry, was much better concentrated than the army of General 
Meade. 

It probably never will be known just how many men there were in 
the Confederate and Union. armies advancing towards Gettysburg. The 
official returns do not give the true numbers, on account of changes made 
after taking the returns and before the arrival at Gettysburg. 

When the Confederate army reached Chambersburg, Mr. Messersmith, 
cashier of the bank, undertook to ascertain the number, making a tally of 
each hundred. An officer saw what he was doing and ordered him to 
stop, Mr. Messersmith bowed, but went to his barn, obtained a hundred 
kernels of corn, holding them in his hand in his trousers -pocket, drop- 
ping a kernel for every Iiundred, When his hand was empty, ten thou- 
sand had passed. Then he gathered them up and dropped them again. 
Through the day he stood upon the steps of the bank counting the pass- 
ing troops. He estimated the number at sixty thousand, which did not 
include Early's division or Stuart's cavalry. The Confederate army had 
advanced slowly from the Potomac, and the ranks had been kept closed. 
There were few stragglers. 

The Union army had made rapid marches after crossing the Potomac, 
and a great many soldiers had straggled from the ranks. I saw many drop 
by the roadside on the march from Frederick northward. The week 
after the battle I rode from Westminster, north-west of Baltimore, to 
Boonsboro, beyond South Mountain, and I saw many Union soldiers who 
had straggled, and who had not returned to their regiments. From the 
many stragglers there seen, I judge that not less than five thousand, and 
possibly many more than that number, had dropped from the ranks. The 
Confederate cavalry, including Imboden's and Jenkins's brigades, num- 
bered not far from thirteen thousand ; the Union cavalry, about eleven 
thousand. (") The Confederate army had two hundred and eighty-seven 



198 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



cannon, tlie Union army three hundred and seventy. It is probable that 
the Confederate army numbered not far from seventy-five thousand, tlie 
Union army about eighty thousand. 

While the cavalry of General Buford were unsaddling their horses 
in the grove around the Lutheran Theological Seminary on the last 




MAJOR-GENERAL BtTFORD. 



night of June, there was another scene far away across the Atlantic in 
the great hall of the House of Commons, where Mr. Roebuck was 
delivering a speech favoring the recognition of the Confederate States 
as a nation by England.C") These his words : " We should acknowledge 
the South because they have won their freedom, and because it is for our 
interest. It is not Richmond that is now in peril, but Washington ; and 



CONFEDERATE NORTHWARD MARCH. 199 

if there be terrors anywhere it is in tlie minds of tlie merchants of New 
York [cheers]." 

Far into the night the discussion went on. JS'early all the speakers 
believed that the Southern States would gain their independence ; the 
people of the South had their symjDathies, but the time had not come for 
decisive action ; it would be better for England to wait a little and see 
what would come from the invasion of Pennsylvania. 

Off the coast of Brazil, in South America, in the great highway of com- 
merce, where the ships of all nations were furrowing the Atlantic, the Ala- 
hama was waiting for her prey, lighting the ocean wdtli burning vessels, 
sweeping the commerce of the United States from the seas, securing the 
carrying trade of the world to the merchants, sln'p-builders, and sailors of 
Great Britain. 

The armies of France are in the city of Mexico, and Louis Napoleon 
is preparing a throne for Maximilian of Austria. If the impending 
battle shall result in defeat to the Union army, what attitude will Great 
Britain and France assume towards the United States ? Will they not 
recognize the Confederacy as a nation ? We approach a great turning- 
point in the history of our country. 



NOTES TO CHAPTER X. 

( ') McClellan, " Campaigns of Stuart," p. 316. 

( ^) General Lee's Letter of June 23d, 5 p.m. 

( ^) Hoke, " Great Invasion," p. 143. 

( ') Idem, p. 163. 

( ») Idem, p. 164. 

( ') McClellan, " Campaigns of Stuart," p. 322. 

( ') J. L. Snesseratt, "Great Invasion," p. 205. 

( ") General Lee's Report. 

( ") Long-street, " Annals of the War," p. 419. 

('») Idem. 

(") General Hunt, Century Magazine, November, ISSG. 

('2) London Times, July 1, 1863. 



200 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



CHAPTER XI. 



AN UNEXPECTED BATTLE. 



IT is a beautiful grove of oak and hickory crowning the ridge upon 
wliicli stands the Lutheran Theological Seminary, three-fourths of a 
mile west of the village of Gettysburg. Going north-west along the Cham- 
bersburg turnpike from the ridge, we come to Mr. McPherson's farm- 
house and large barn. Passing this we descend to Willoughby Run and 
the toll-gate; crossing the run, ascending a gentle slope a quarter of a 
mile, and we are at the tavern of Mr. Herr. 

By the side of the turnpike, a few rods north, is an unfinished railroad, 
with a cut through Seminary Ridge nearly twenty feet deep, and there is 
an embankment partly completed across Willoughby Run. 













THEOLOGICAL, SEMINARY. 



We look over a beautiful country---broad and fertile fields which, on 
the midsummer days of 1863, were waving with wheat ripe for the reaper, 
or clover waiting for the mower. 

Through the niglit couriers were coming and going over all the roads 
around Gettj'sburg. The pickets of Buford's cavalry were along Willough- 
by Run. General Buford, from tlie cupola of the seminary, looking 
westward, could see the glimmering camp-fires of A. P. Hill's corps in 



AN UNEXPECTED BATTLE. 201 

the fields of Caslitown. General Buford had but two brigades — Gamble's 
and Devin's — less than three thousand men, with only one battery of artil- 
lery, A, Second United States, Captain Tidball, commanded by Lieutenant 
Calef. He had been ordered to hold Gettysburg, and he placed Gam- 
ble's brigade south of the turnpike and Devin's north of it, secreting the 
horses in the woods, and deploying the men as infantry, resolving to make 
"VVilloughby Run his line of defence. He w^as very sure that the Confed- 
erates would advance from Cashtown and attack him in the morning. He 
sent his videttes out to Marsh Creek, nearly two miles, and had pickets on 
all the roads, and sent messengers to General Reynolds, of the First Corps, 
who was seven miles south, also on Marsh Run — the same stream — and 
a messenger to Taneytown, informing General Meade that he was con- 
fronted by the Confederates.(') 

Before the sun appeared above the eastern horizon the troops of 
Heth's division of A. P. Hill's corps of Confederates were awakened by 
the morning drum-beat. f) They ate their breakfast and filed into the 
turnpike, and began their march eastward towards Gettysburg. At Marsh 
Run they came upon Buford's videttes, who fell back to "VVilloughby Run. 

It was eight o'clock, and the sun's rays were glinting from the 
spires of the town, when a cavalryman came riding down the hill past 
Herr's Tavern, informing Buford that the Confederates were coming.Q A 
few moments later and Marye's battery from Fredericksburg, Virginia, 
belonging to Fegram's battalion of artillery, came to a halt in front of the 
tavern. The Confederates could see men in blue uniforms in the fields 
east of Willoughby Run. The cannoneers jumped from their limbers, 
wheeled their cannon, and sent a shell whirring across the stream. 

A moment later Lieutenant Rodes, commanding two guns of Calef's 
battery in the road on the crest of the ridge north of McPherson's house, 
gave an order to fire, and a shell went fiying westward towards Herr's 
Tavern. The great battle had begun. No one had selected the ground. 
Buford had been directed to hold Gettysburg, and was obeying. Hetli 
had been ordered to advance to Gettysburg, and was also obeying orders. 
General Lee, when in Fredericksburg, before setting out to invadp Penn- 
sylvania, had determined to fight a defensive battle, but the conflict had 
begun of itself upon ground which no one had selected ; so in war events 
shape themselves, overturning well-laid plans. 

Calef placed the centre section, two guns, under Sergeant Newman, in 
the field south of the turnpike, and sent Lieutenant Pugel, with the other 
two cannon, through McPherson's woods, farther south, and the cannon- 
ade opened vigorously. 



202 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



General Hetli directed General Archer, with his brigade, to file into 
the field south of the tavern, and General Davis to deploy between the 
turnpike and the railroad on the north. The Confederates descended 
the slope towards Willoughby Run, when suddenly from the grove, from 
fence and thicket, there came a volley of musketry which arrested tlieir 
advance. The fire was so determined that General TIeth believed he was 
confronted by a colunni of infantry. 

General Heth sent word to General Hill that he liad encountered a 
strong force, and Hill ordered General Pender to advance. While that 
division was on its way from Cashtown the cannonade went on between 
Calef's six guns and seventeen Confederate cannon, accompanied by a 




WHERE THE BATTLE BEGAN. 



The view is on the Ohambersbiir"; turnpike, from the spot where Calefs battery stood. The figure is 
poiuting to Herr's Tavern, beyond Willoughby Ran, where the Confederate battery was planted. Archer's 
brigade deployed in the fields to the left of the tavern, Davis's to the right. At eleven o'clock and during the 
afternoon the battle raged in the lields to the right and left of the figure. 

rattling fire of musketry along Willoughby E.un.(^) From tlje cupola of 
the seminary General Buford looks down ujwn the scene, casting anxious 
glances over the green fields southward. He sees a group of horsemen 
coming up the Emmettsburg road, and still farther away the sunlight 
glints from gun-barrel and bayonet. The foremost horseman is General 
Reynolds, followed by his staff, and the dark column is Wadsworth's divis- 
ion. Buford has already sent a cavalryman to guide them. They leave 
the turnpike at Mr. Codori's house and turn north-west across the fields. 
General Reynolds hastens to the seminary and shakes hands \vith Buford. 
Last evening he was sad and dejected, as if weighed down with a sense 
of great responsibility, or of a premonition that his life-work was almost 
ended ; but now every sense is quickened. He ascends the stairs to the 
cupola and sweeps the landscape with his glass. Northward is a beau- 



AN UNEXPECTED BATTLE. 



203 




OPENING OP BATTLE AT GET- 
TYSBURG, 8 A.M., JULY 1, 
1863. 



tiful plain dotted witli farm-houses, crossed by fences, traversed bj the 

roads north to Carlisle, north-east to Harrisbiirg, north-west, over Oak 

Ridge, to Mnmmasburg ; behind him is the town ; east of it, Cemetery 

Hill, the marble head-stones standing out clean and white in the mornino: 

sun ; beyond it, crowned with a forest, is Culp's 

Hill ; southward from the cemetery is Zeigler's 

grove of oaks and a gentle ridge, changing 

to a rocky, wooded hill — Little Round Top 

— with Great Round Top beyond. It is an 

enchanting landscape. Southward from the 

seminar}'- extends the ridge upon which it 

stands, thickly covered with oaks. "Westward, 

almost beneath him, are Buford's hard-pressed 

lines, with Calef's battery sending shot and 

shell across Willoughby Run, while on the 

Chambersburg pike are the advancing columns of Pender's division. 

At last, after many days of weary marching, the two armies are to meet 
by chance upon a field which Buford, by the terms of his orders from 
Reynolds, has seen fit to hold. Couriers ride down the Emmettsburg road 
with orders from Reynolds to the other two divisions of the First Corps, 
and to General Howard, commanding the Eleventh, to hasten to Gettysburg. 

Marsh Run, upon which Buford's pickets began the fight, runs south- 
east, and crosses the Emmettsburg road five miles south. Wadsworth's 
division had bivouacked on its banks — Meredith's brigade on the north, 
Cutler's on the south side of the stream. General Cutler, ever prompt, 
was ready when the hour for marching arrived. He crossed the bridge 
and took the lead of the colunm, the soldiers carrying one day's rations 
in their haversacks and sixty rounds in their cartridge-boxes. 

A cavalryman comes clattering down the turnpike with an order to 
General Wadsworth to march across the fields upon the double-quick. 

" Pioneers to the front !" is the order, and the men who carry axes 
run ahead, tear down the rails, and the column turns into the field. (°) 

" Load at will ! Forward ! Double-quick !" and the men go upon the 
run through the meadows, the pioneers clearing the way. Hall's Second 
Maine Battery dashing ahead, the horses upon the gallop, ascending the 
hill, passing the seminary, wheeling into position on the north side of 
the turnpike in line with Calef's.(') 

As the brigade goes across the fields they see an old gray-haired man 
who foujD^ht in the Mexican war coming across the meadow from his small 
one -story house on the Chambersburg road at the western end of the 



204 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 




JOHN BURNS. 



town. He lias his gun in hand, and joins tlie ranks of the One Hun- 
dred and Fiftietli Pennsylvania regiment. It is John Burns, who does 
not wait to be enrolled, but fights valiantly till wounded. 

In the ranks of Baxter's brigade, advancing from Emmettsburg, is a 
boy from that town marching with the men of the Twelfth Massachusetts 
— J. W. Weakly. He has obtained a gun, a soldier's cap, and a blue 
blouse. His blood is up, and he is determined to fight the Confederates, 
He is thin and pale, and not very strong. He wants to be mustered in 
as a soldier, and Colonel Bates, commanding the regiment, has accepted 
him. Before night he will be lying upon the field, his young blood 
staining the green grass from a wound in his right arm and another in 
his thigh. 



AN UNEXPECTED BATTLE. 



205 



When Baxter's brigade reached Codori's house and turned into the 
fields they gave a cheer. Some of the men vdio had been detailed to 
guard the wagon expressed their dissatisfaction. (*) 

"What is this row about?" asked General Baxter. 

" We want to go to our regiment if there is to be any fighting." 

" Oh, is that it? Yery well; if that is the case, you are just the men 
I want." Across tlie fields they go upon the run to join their respective 
commands. 




JOHN BURNS BROUGHT TO HIS HOUSE AFTER THE BATTLE. 



While Cutler's and Meredith's men are coming up the eastern slope of 
the ridge, let us go over to Willoughby Run and take a look at Heth's ad- 
vance. South of the turnpike Archer's brigade, finding only dismounted 
cavalrymen in front of them, has passed on, crossed the stream, and is driv- 
ing Gamble step by step back towards the seminary. Korth of the turn- 
pike Davis's brigade is sweeping across the fields, compelling Devin to 
fall back. From Herr's Tavern Pegram's sixteen guns are sending shot 
and shell upon Calef's and Devin's unprotected men. Pender's division 
is deploying in the fields by Herr's Tavern. 

At this moment Archer's men were advancing upon one of the guns 
of Calef's battery, shooting four of Sergeant Xewman's horses, but the 
gunners took hold of the cannon and dragged it back. 

General Reynolds leads Cutler's brigade in person into position, 



206 



MAKCHING TO VICTORY. 



stationing the Seventy-sixtli New York regiment, Fifty-sixth Pennsylva- 
nia, and One Hundred and Forty-seventh New York north of the raih'oad 
excavation, while General Wadsworth places the Fourteenth and Mnety- 
fiftli JSTew York south of it, to support the battery. 

Up tlirough the green field advances Davis's Confederate brigade, 
following the retreating cavalry. Before Cutler's regiments are in posi- 
tion men begin to fall from the ranks. The atmosphere is thick with 
the drifting cannon-smoke. General Cutler with his glass looks down 
towards Willoughby Kun.(°) 

" Is that the enemy ?" Colonel Hoffman, of the Fifty-sixth Pennsylva- 
nia, inquires, 
" Yes." 

" Ready ! Pight oblique ! Aim ! Fire !" are his orders, and a volley 
crashes upon the air; a volley from Davis's Confederate brigade is the 
response. 

General Meredith's brigade followed Cutler's in the march from Marsh 
Pun.('°) Cutler's had passed up the ridge and taken 
position north of the seminary. A staff-officer sent 
by Reynolds conducted Meredith into position. The 
Second Wisconsin was in advance upon the run, and 
passed south of the house of Mr. Shultz, into the 
woods of McPherson, coming forward by company 
into line, the men loading their guns while upon the 
run.(") The cavalry were falling back. The Con- 
federates under Archer had crossed Willoughby Run, 
picking their way through the thicket and tangled 
vines along its banks, and forming on the eastern 
side. In an instant the conflict began at close 
range, the Second Wisconsin firing a volley before 
the other Union regiments came into position. The volley was almost 
simultaneous with that of the Fifty-sixth Pennsylvania. 

It was ten o'clock — probably a few minutes past the hour. General 
Reynolds, having placed Cutler's brigade in position up by the turnpike 
with Hall's battery, relieving Calef's, came riding down through McPher- 
son's field into the woods. General Doubleday, who had commanded the 
third division of the First Corps, but who had been appointed by Reyn- 
olds to command the corps while he directed the movements of the left 
wing, came galloping with his staff over the fields from Codori's house to 
the Fairfield road, stopping there, and sending a staff-officer to Reynolds 
for instructions. "Tell Doubleday that I will hold the Chambersburg 




BEGINNING OF INFAN- 
TRY ENGAGEMENT, 10 
A.M., JULY 1, 1863. 



AN UNEXPECTED BATTLE. 207 

pike, and lie must hold the road where he is."(") The air is thick with 
bullets. Keynolds is a conspicuous figure on his horse. The Confederates 
are but a few rods distant, and can see that he is giving directions. A 
soldier singles him out, and fires a bullet which passes through his brain. 
He falls from his horse dead, speaking no word, uttering no crj. At the 
beginning of the battle the Union troops lost a commander of such emi- 
nence and ability that President Lincoln had thought of appointing him 
to the command instead of Meade.(") 

The sad news runs along the lines of the " Iron Brigade," as Meredith's 
has been called, and the men are determined to avenge his death. ('*) 
Archer's Confederate brigade is before them ; it had crossed Willoughby 
Run. " Forward ! Charge !" was Meredith's command, and the line went 
forward, striking Archer's line partly in flank, crumbling it in an instant, 
capturing a large portion of the First Tennessee, together with General 
Archer, and sweeping the entire brigade into the field on the other side of 
the stream. 

At this moment the battle was waxing hot between Davis's Confeder- 
ate brigade and Cutler's by the railroad. Davis was advancing through 
the field, sending the Fifty -fifth North Carolina north of the railroad, 
which attacked the flank of the two regiments which Reynolds had placed 
north of the excavation. Three Mississippi regiments were between the 
railroad and the turnpike. 

General Wadsworth gave an order for Cutler to fall back. The two 
regiments north of the railroad obeyed, and retired towards the town, but 
the order did not reach the other regiments of the brigade by McPher- 
son's house. Lieutenant -colonel Miller, commanding the One Hundred 
and Forty-seventh New York, received it, but before he could issue it fell 
insensible. Major Harney, who succeeded to the command, knew nothing 
of it. The Mississippians were coming through the railroad excavation 
east of Willoughby Run. 

The One Hundred and Forty-seventh New York, left alone by the rail- 
road, ignorant of any order to fall back, still continued the contest till 
more than one half were killed or wounded, when the order came again 
for them to fall back. 

In the field between the railroad and the turnpike is Hall's battery, 
in great danger at this moment, for the Mississippians are streaming along 
the railroad to gain its rear.(") 

" Take your guns to the rear and open fire upon them," is Hall's com- 
mand to Lieutenant Ulmer, who starts with two pieces, gains a new posi- 
tion, but before he can fire all the horses of one piece are shot down, 



208 



MAECHING TO VICTORY. 



Imt tlie men dragged tlie gun to tlie rear. Tlie otlier pieces, one by one, 
are sent to the rear, except the last, which Hall is obliged to leave, the 
Confederates shooting all the horses. 

The Fourteenth and Ninety-fifth New York are by McPherson's house, 
facino- west, but they fall back, change front and face north, having no 
intention of abandoning their position. The Sixth Wisconsin, belonging 
to Meredith's brigade, is in their rear towards the seminary. Doubleday 
sends it north, and it comes in on the right of the other two regiments. 
The Mississippians also change front and run into the railroad exca- 
vation. 

Colonel Fowler, of the Fourteenth New York, had been placed in com- 
mand of three regiments by General Doubleday. The regiments are by 
the turnpike fence ; a sheet of flame bursts from their muskets. The 
Union men tear down the fence and rush towards the excavation. Men 
drop, but others go on. Adjutant Brooks and a portion of the Sixth Wis- 
consin rush to the eastern end of the excava- 
tion, and fire a volley through the cut upon 
the Mississippians, who find themselves in a 
trap, with a fire rained upon them and the 
eastern end closed. They throw down their 
guns and surrender, while the remainder of 
Davis's brigade retreats to Willoughby Run. 
At this moment AYadswortli, who has retired 
with the other regiments towards Gettysburg, 
is coming back to re-establisli his Hne.C") 

This the contest of the morning, in which 
the advantage has been on the side of the 
Union troops. In the charge the Ninety -seventh New York lost one 
hundred and sixty men. 

It was nearl}^ eleven o'clock, and for a time there was a lull — the calm- 
ness which precedes a fiercer contest — the period of preparation. 

Looking down the Emmettsburo; road we see the other two divisions of 
the First Corps — Rowley's and Robinson's — with the artillery, turning 
from the road near the house of Mr. Codori, and moving towards the sem- 
inary. Not far behind them is General Howard and his staff, who see 
the battle-cloud rising above the green foliage. The general turns to the 
right, rides to the cemetery, where the white marble head-stones crown 
the apex of the hill east of the town, and sweeps the landscape with his 
glass, noting how commanding the situation. To his right, not far away, is 
C nip's Hill. In the east, down the Baltimore pike, is Wolf's Hill. Can- 




CAPTURE OP CONFEDERATES 
IN THE RAILROAD AT GET- 
TYSBURG. 



AN UNEXPECTED BATTLE. 



209 



non planted in the cemetery and north of it can be made to sweep a hirge 
portion of tlie circle. 

" This seems to be a good position, colonel," he remarked to Colonel 
Mysenburg.(") 

" It is the only position," was the reply. 

The topographical advantages were plain. It is no reflection upon Bu- 
ford or Reynolds that they did not select it. Buford was ordered to hold 
the town. He bivouacked in the proper place to carry out his orders, and 
was attacked wliile there, and Reynolds came to his support. There had 
been no selection of a place. 




RAILROAD EXCAVATION. 

The view is from the west, hxiking towm-ds the position occupied l)y the Union troops. Tlie Chnm- 
bevsbnrg turnpike is ;it the ri^'lit, and the Union troops charged across ilie lield from tlie turnpike to the 
raih'oad. Cemetery Hill, east of Gettysburg, is seen in the far distance along the railroad track. 



General Howard rode through the town. Leaving his horse he climbed 
a stair-way to the observatory of Pennsylvania College, spread out his map 
and examined it. An offlcer came galloping down the street with the sad 
and disheartening information that General Reynolds was wounded. Soon 
he was informed that Reynolds was dead, and that the command devolved 
upon him. In a moment he was invested with the command of the right 
wing of the army, with the responsibility of conducting a battle already 
begun. 

For the remainder of the day General Doubleday commanded the First 
Corps, and General Schurz the Eleventh. 
14 



210 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



At eleven o'clock Doubleday was placing Rowley and Robinson in po- 
sition on Seminary Ridge. Barlow's division of the Eleventh Corps was 
still far down the Emmettsburg road — its way blocked by the wagons of 
the First Corps. Steinwelir's and Schnrz's divisions were nearer, ap-' 
proaching by the Taneytown road. 

General Howard directed Steinwehr to take possession of Cemetery Hill, 
while Schurz passed through the town and marched north-east along the 
road to Muramasburg, deploying in the fields. 




PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE. 



Leaving the scenes of Gettysburg for the moment and going over the 
Chambersburg turnpike, we find General Lee at Cashtown. He has been 
riding with General Longstreet. They have heard the cannonade, and 
General Lee hastens over the hills and reaches General Anderson, who is 
at Cashtown. The firing is deep and heavy from the Confederate batter- 
ies at Llerr's Tavern and Hall's Second Maine Battery. They can liear 
the rolls of musketry.(") General Lee is depressed in spirits. These his 
words : " I cannot think what has become of Stuart. I ought to have 
lieard from him long before now. He may have met with disaster, but I 
hope not. In the absence of reports from him I am in ignorance as to 



AN UNEXPECTED BATTLE. 



211 




GEN. O. O. HOWARD. 



Avliat we have in front of us here. It may be the whole Federal army, or 
it may be onlj^ a detachment. If it is the whole Federal force, we must 
•fight a battle here. If we do not gain a victory, those defiles and gorges 
through which we passed this morning will shelter us from disaster.-' He 
rides on towards the scene of conflict. 

It was General Howard's intention to post the Eleventh Corps on 
Oak Hill, the high elevation north of the railroad, the extension of Semi- 
nary Ridge, crowned with oaks ; but Buford's cavalry videttes came riding 
in from the north with the startling information that the Confederates in 
great force were advancing on the Carlisle road. Howard had supposed 
the only Confederates before him were those of Hill's corps ; this new 
force must be the advance of Ewell. It was reported that the Twelfth 



212 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



Corps was only five miles distant at Two Taverns, and word was sent to 
inform General Slocum of the situation of affairs, also to General Sickles, 
in the direction of Emmettsburg.(") 

At two o'clock in the afternoon the Union troops at Gettysburg were 








VIEW PROM POSITION HELD BY BAXTER S BRIGADE, LOOKING EAST. 

The view is from the ridge occupied by Baxter's brigade, looking eastward towards Gettysburg. Tlie 
monument in the foreground is that of the Thirteenth Massachusetts regiment, which faced north, confront- 
ing the Confederates in McLain's harn and door-yard. The Eleventh Corps occupied the fields to the left; 
Dilger's battery was in the field to the left of the mouumeut. 

arranged with the First Corps west of the town, and the Eleventh Corps 
north of it, with the exception of Stein wehr's division, which was on Cem- 
etery Hill. The nearest troops — those which could be called upon by Gen- 
eral Howard— were the Twelfth Corps, five miles distant, in position to 
come up and form on the right of the Eleventh Corps. 

Beginning south-west of the seminary, just beyond %vhere Reynolds 
fell, at the left of the First Corps, we find Biddle's brigade of Rowley's 
division in the smooth field south of the grove. 

General Meredith, of the " Iron Brigade," has been wounded, and Colo- 
nel Morrow commands it. The troops stand where they won their suc- 
cess of the morning — in the woods. From the woods to the turnpike the 
ground is occupied by Stone's brigade of Rowley's division. It has an 
angle to defend, the line turning east. Reynolds's First New York Bat- 
tery is stationed with its guns pointing north. Cutler's brigade is on the 
ground which it occupied in the morning, with Stuart's battery, the Fourth 
United States. 



AN UNEXPECTED BATTLE. 



213 



Crossing the railroad, we come to the Eleventh Pennsylvania, Paul's 
brigade, the tirst north of the railroad ; then Baxter's brigade of Robin- 
son's division, in a narrow lane, screened hy a low wall and a thicket of 
small oaks. The trooj)s face west, looking over a wheat-field sloping gen- 
tly towards the west. 

Paul's brigade is in rear of Baxter's ; the Xinety-fourth New York regi- 
ment on the left, with the Sixteenth Maine facing west ; the One Hun- 
dred and Fourth New York and the Thirteenth Massachusetts face north, 
looking up a lane leading to the house of Mr. McLain and his great red 
barn. Stevens's Fifth Maine Battery is in reserve by the seminary. This 
completes the formation of the First Corps. 

The Eleventh Corps did not arrive upon the field till past noon, and 
there was little time to arrange it. It was at a right angle with the First 
Corps. Walking east from the ridge, descending the hill, we find a gap 
of a quarter of a mile between the Thirteenth Massachusetts and Dilger's 
Eleventh Ohio Battery. Its intrepid commander wears buckskin breeches, 
and the soldiers have nicknamed him " Leather Breeches." They admire 
the skill with which he 
liandles his guns. 

There is a wide gap 
between the two corps 
at a point where the line 
turns the angle. Beyond 
Dilger is Wheeler's Thir- 
teenth ]^ew York Bat- 
tery and Von Amsberg's 
brigade, holding the 
ground to the Carlisle 
road. Crossing this, we first day at Gettysburg, at 3 p. m. 

come to Kryzanowski's 

brigade and Heckman's battery. The two brigades compose Schimmel- 
pfennig's division. 

In the fields south of Blocher's house we find Ames's brigade of Bar- 
low's division, with Wilkeson's battery (G, Fourth United States), on a knoll, 
two of his guns pointing north-west, towards Blocher's house, two north-east, 
across Rock Creek, towards the house of Mr. Benner. Two cannon, under 
Lieutenant Merkle, have been stationed by the Almshouse, nearer the town. 

Von Gilsa's brigade is on the extreme right, along Rock Creek. 

The sharp action of the morning made the Confederates cautious. 
Hill knew that Ewell, with two divisions, was rapidly advancing from 




214 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

Carlisle, and waited Lis arrival before renewing the attack, but placed his 
trooi3s in position. Going over to Herr's Tavern, where the artillery is 
planted, and walking south into a beautiful grove, we find, at two o'clock, 
Heth's division — Brockenborough's and Pettigrew's brigades, with what is 
left of Archer's and Davis's. 

Along the turnpike and in the fields is Pender's division — Thomas's 
brigade on the north side ; McGowan, Lane, and Scales, south. Attached 
to the two divisions are seventeen batteries — sixtj-eightj guns — a large 
portion of which are placed along the ridge on both sides of the turnpike. 
Passing through the fields north-east, crossing Rock Creek, we come to 
Brander's battery ; beyond it, the right of Iverson's I^orth Carolina brigade, 
then O'l^eal's Alabama brigade on the summit of Oak Hill. Eastward, 
extending down into the fields, is Dole's Georgia brigade. Carter's bat- 
tery comes down through the woods and takes a commanding position on 
Oak Hill, whence it can rain its missiles upon every part of the Union 
line — upon the First Corps, upon Dilger's and Wheeler's batteries, 
upon Yan Amsberg, or even upon Barlow's division. In reserve, behind 
O'Neal's and Dole's, are Daniel's and Ramseur's brigades. Going east, 
across Rock Creek, we see Early's division— Gordon's brigade — between 
the creek and the Harrisburg road, with three batteries across the road; 
Hays's and Hoke's brigades deployed in the second line, facing south-west, 
to envelop Barlow. Johnson's division of Ewell's corps is advancing along 
the Harrisburg road, and will arrive before the close of the battle. 

It was to be an unequal contest, for the Confederates greatly out- 
numbered the Union troops, and had the advantage of position. 

General Howard rode along the lines at tM'o o'clock. He did not 
know the danger that threatened his right flank, for Gordon's, Hays's, and 
Hoke's brigades had not yet appeared. He hoped to hold his position 
till the Third Corps arrived, not knowing that, through misconception and 
misunderstanding, it was at that moment ten miles from the scene of con- 
flict. Again he sent a messenger to Slocum, only five miles distant, to 
come up with the Twelfth Corps and form on his right and assume com- 
mand, but Slocum did not come. 

If Slocum had advanced when Howard sent his first message, quite 
likely the result of the first day's contest would have been different from 
what it was. 

The Confederate batteries once more opened fire, concentrating it main- 
ly upon the First Corps and Dilger's and Wheeler's batteries. 

There was a gap between Evvell and Hill, and Ewell directed Iver- 
son, Ramseur, and Daniel to march south - west, to bring the two corps 



AN UNEXPECTED BATTLE. 215 

nearer together. They crossed tlie Mummasburg road, then turned south- 
east. 

The mower had not yet swept the green fields, and the tall grass was 
waving in its beauty. The Confederate skirmishers crept through it, 
opening a galling fire upon the Union troops, who saw only puffs of smoke 
rising above the grass. 

The movement of Rodes's troops induced Cutler to change front. He 
was south of the railroad, facing west, but swung his line to face the north, 
bringing it into position to send an enfilading fire upon Iverson, who was 
sweeping round to the west, while O'l^eal was advancing directly south. 
The skirmishers were sheltered by the great red barn of Mr. McLain. They 
fired from the barn windows, from the fences and sheds, from beneath the 
apple and peach trees in the garden. It was a threatening cloud of Confed- 
erates which pressed down into the gap between the First and Eleventh 
corps. Dole intended to drive in a wedge which would break the Union 
line. Dilger and Wheeler had been sending their shells to the summit 
of Oak Hill, but now they wheeled and poured a destructive storm upon 
Dole. 

In front of the lane, towards the barn, are the Thirteenth Massachu- 
setts and One Hundred and Fourth New York, of Paul's brigade. They 
are in a grove of oaks south of the Mummasburg road, holding the right 
of the First Corps. The barn is riddled by their firing. Thick and fast 
the bullets fly through the garden ; equally plenteous are they raining 
upon the Thirteenth Massachusetts, which charges towards the barn. Ser- 
geant Morris carrying the colors. Suddenly he leaps into the air and 
falls dead, with his hands grasping the staff. 

The concentrated fire upon the Confederates under Dole compels him 
to fall back. 

Iverson's brigade of North Carolinians have been creeping through the 
tall grass, firing, dropping upon the ground to reload, thus screening them- 
selves from the fire of Baxter's brigade, sheltered by the scrubby oaks. 
There comes a lightning-flash from beneath the green foliage, and the men of 
North Carolina go down as if smitten by a thunder-bolt; not all by the fire 
of Baxter, but in part by a volley from Cutler's brigade across the railroad. 

" Let us capture them !" is the cry that runs along the lines. " For- 
ward, Twelfth !" is the word of command from Adjutant Wherum. Over 
the wall leaps the Twelfth Massachusetts, through the shrubbery dashes 
the Eighty-eighth Pennsylvania and the other regiments — each soldier in- 
stinctively seeing that it is the right thing to be done — all rushing down 
upon the astonished Confederates. 



216 MARCHING TO A^ICTORY. 

"The enemy charged," says Iverson, "in overwhelming force, and 
captured nearly all that were left unhurt of the three regiments of my 
brigade. When I saw white handkerchiefs raised and my line of battle 
still lying down, in position, I characterized the surrender as disgraceful ; 
but when afterwards I found that five hundred of my men were left ly- 
ing dead and wounded, and in a line as straight as a dress parade, I exon- 
erated the survivors, and claim that they nobly fought and died, without 
a man running to the rear. No greater gallantry or heroism during the 
war. . . . The fighting ceased on my part."('^°) 

" The dead lay in a distinctly marked line of battle," are the words of 
General Rodes.f ) 

It was nearly three o'clock, and the battle was becoming more intense. 

" At 3.45," says General Howard, " Generals Doubleday and Wads- 
worth besought me for reinforcements. I directed General Schurz, if he 
could spare a regiment or more, to send it to reinforce General Wads- 
worth, and several times sent urgent requests to General Slocuni to come 
to my assistance. To every application for reinforcements I I'eplied, 'Hold 
out if possible a while longer, for I am expecting General Slocum every mo- 
ment.'. . . About 4: P.M. I despatched Major Howard, my aide, to General Slo- 
cum to inform him of the state of affairs, and request him to send one of 
his divisions to the left and the other to the right of Gettysburg. He met 
the general on the Baltimore pike, about a mile from Gettysburg, who re- 
plied that he had already ordered a division to the right, and that he would 
send another to cover the left, as requested, but that he did not wish to 
come up to the front and take the responsibility of that fight. In justice 
to General Slocum, I desire to say that he afterwards expressed the opinion 
that it was against the wish of the commanding general to bring on a gen- 
eral engagement at that point."(") 

The Twelfth Corps had arrived at Two Taverns during the forenoon, 
after a march from Littlestown in the early morning. The cannonade 
and musketry could be distinctly heard by the troops as they rested in the 
fields around Two Taverns. A general engagement had begun, inaugu- 
rated by General Reynolds, commanding the left wing of the army, who 
had been killed. General Slocum outranked General Howard, and did not 
wish to assume any responsibility. 

General Sloeum's course has been open to much criticism, but he claimed 
that General Meade did not desire to have a battle at Gettysburg. 

Let us look at affairs as they were at three o'clock on the right of the 
Union line. A part of the Seventeenth Connecticut had been sent across 
Rock Creek as skirmishers, but were being driven back by Early's advancing 



AN UNEXPECTED BATTLE. 



217, 



line of battle. The only battery which could be spared on the Union side 
for the right of the line was G, Fourth United States, commanded by Lieu- 
tenant Wilkeson, who had placed fonr of his light 12-pounders on a knoll 
overlooking a wide reach of fields on both sides of Rock Creek, and two 
pieces nearer the town, by the Almshouse, under Lieutenant Merkle. The 
Seventeenth Connecticut, and Twenty-fifth, Seventy-fifth, and One Hun- 
dred and Seventh Oliio, constituted the brigade of General Ames, assigned 
to hold this important position, with no reserve that could be called upon in 
the hour of need. Von Giisa, along Rock Creek, must hold the flank. The 
artillery duel began, between Wilkeson, Avith four j)ieces, and twelve guns 
on the part of the Confederates. 

"Wilkeson was supjjorted by the Seventeenth Connecticut regiment. 

It was a trying situation for the cannoneers of the Union battery. 
Their commander, to encourage them, to inspire them with his own lofty 
spirit, sat upon his liorse, a conspicuous figure, calmly directing the fire of 
the pieces. Lie rode 
from piece to piece, his 
horse upon the Avalk, 
Shells were bursting 
amid the guns; shot 
from rifled cannon cut 
the air or ploughed the 
ground, from cannon 
not half a mile away, 
upon a hill much high- 
er than that which he 
occupied. This young 
lieutenant bore an hon- 
ored nan)e — Bayard 
Wilkeson — a family 
name, given hini in 
part, also, by his par- 
ents out of their admiration for the great Chevalier of France, the knight 
of other days, whose character was without a stain, whose life w'as above 
reproach. This self-possessed lieutenant from New York, animated by 
an unquenchable patriotism, became a soldier at sixteen, received his 
commission when he was but seventeen, and was not then nineteen years 
of age. His first battle was Fredericksburg. For six months he had 
been commander — his captain engaged elsewhere. So admirable the dis- 
cipline and efficient the battery under the instruction of this boy-lieuten- 




WHERE WILKESON'S BATTERY AND THE SEVENTEENTH 
CONNECTICUT STOOD. 



218 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



;mt that it had been accorded the post of honor — the right of the line. 
It is a brave sph-it that can look ont composedly upon the scene in a 
contest so unequal, but his guns are fired with precision and effect. A 
rilled cannon-shot strikes his right leg, crushing the bones and mangling 
the flesh. His soldiers lay him upon the ground. With composure he 
ties his handkerchief around it, twists it into a tourniquet to stop 

the flow of blood, then with his own 
hand and knife severs the cords and 
tendons, and, sitting there, tells his 
cannoneers to go on with tlieir fire — a 
bravery unsurpassed even by that of 
the Chevalier of France beneath tlie 
walls of Brescia, in Italy, who said to 
his soldiers, when wounded, "Let me 
lie with my face to the enemy, for I 
never yet have learned to turn my 
back upon the foe." Faint and thirs- 
ty, he sends a soldier with his can- 
teen to fill it at the Ahnshouse well. 
AVhen the man returns, a wounded in- 
fantryman whose life is ebbing away, 
beholding the canteen, exclaims, " Oh 
that I could have but a swallow!" 
Like Sir Philip Sidney, author of the 
" Arcadia," upon the field of Zutpheu, 
who said to a wounded soldier by his 
side, " Drink, comrade, your necessities 
are greater than mine," so Bayard "VVil- 
keson, with like unselfishness, courtesy, 
and benevolence, replies, " Drink, com- 
rade ; I can wait," In the consuming 
thirst and fever of approaching death 
the infantryman drains the canteen of its contents. When it was seen 
that the line must retire, Wilkeson allowed himself to be carried to the 
Almshouse hospital, which, a few minutes later, was within the advancing 
lines of the Confederates, and where, during the night, for want of atten- 
tion, he died. Dead — but his heroism, sense of duty, responsibility to 
obligation, devotion, and loyalty remain ; and by the majesty of his death 
he shall be evermore an inspiration to those who love the country which 
he died to save.(") 




BAYARD WILKESON. 



AN UNEXPECTED BATTLE. 219 

The weak point in tlie Union line was the angle between the First and 
Eleventh Corps — the wide gap, with only Dilger's battery to hold it. 
General Howard, possibly from w\ant of information in regard to EwelPs 
force and position, ordered Schimmelpfennig to advance. The movement 
enabled E well's batteries on Oak Hill to send down a destructive enfiladino- 
fire, which compelled the line to fall back. It was rallied in part. At 
this moment Early, advanced, with Gordon's brigade on the right. Hays 
in the centre, Hoke on the left, with Smith in reserve — moving down 
to Kock Creek, the soldiers plashing through it on the flank of Yon Gilsa 
by the York road. It was like the drawing of a seine by fishermen. At 
the same moment Dole was pushing into the gap between the First and 
Eleventh Corps. The Union line was forced back. Barlow, commanding a 
division, was wounded and carried from the field. By the Almshouse the 
battle was renewed, but the Eleventh Corps was rapidly crumbling. The 
falling back of the left of the Eleventh Corps compelled Kobinson, on the 
right of the First, to change position. Going down the line of the First 
Corps, we see Meredith's division still holding the ground of the morning, 
reduced by losses to less than one thousand. Meredith and Kowley have 
held Heth's division at bay, but now they must meet the onset of Pender's 
fresh brigades. Meredith is in the woods, where he has been through the 
day; Kowley in the field by McPherson's. The Confederates advance 
boldly, but are met by a terrific fire. Pender and Scales, commanding a 
brigade, are both w^ounded, and the Confederate line retreats in disorder. 
Perrin's Confederate brigade falls upon Biddle's, which is forced back 
towards the seminary, and Meredith, with both flanks exposed, is com- 
pelled to abandon the ground which has been held since morning. 
Meredith is wounded, and Colonel Morrow succeeds to the command. In 
perfect order, with steady ranks, the two divisions fall back to the semi- 
nary ridge, where a breastwork of rails has been erected, and where the 
troops face once more to the west, confronting the Confederates, and 
deliver a fire, which holds Daniel's Confederates in check; while Double- 
day's artillery, planted along the ridge by the seminary, cuts great gaps 
in Scales's brigade of Pender's division. Scales and Pender are both 
wounded. Scales's men rush up almost to the muzzles of the cannon, but 
are swept back by the remorseless fire. Every field-oflicer of the Con- 
federate brigade but one is wounded. 

Southward Buford's men,who have been on the field since daylight, 
leajD from their saddles, deploy as infantry, and deliver a fire which pre- 
vents the Confederates from closing upon Doubleday's flank. 

Cutler halts behind the railroad embankment in the field between 



220 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

Seminary Ridge and the town, and liolds Rodes in cheek, enabling the 
Union artillery to get across the field sontli of the town. 

The One Hundred and Forty-ninth Pennsylvania and Baxter's brigade 
were still on the ridge, holding out so stubbornly that Hill advanced 
cautiously. 

Hall's battery, moving towards the town, unlimbered and sent its 
shells along the street upon the advancing Confederates. But the con- 
flict was over. General Howard had seen the crumbling of the Eleventh 
Corps, and had ordered the retreat. Down from the Almshouse, from the 
Carlisle road, from the York road, came the men of the Eleventh Corps, 
those of Barlow's division loading and firing on their retreat. 

This the testimony of A. P. Hill : " A Yankee color-bearer floated his 
standard in the field, and the regiment fought around it ; and when at last 
it was obliged to retreat, the color-bearer, last of all, turning round now 
and then to shake his fist in the face of the advancing rebels, I was sorry 
when I saw him meet his doom."(") 

Three color-bearers of the Nineteenth Indiana, one after the other, 
were shot. The sergeant-major, Asa Blanchard, ran and seized the flag 
when the third man fell, waved it, and cried, "Rally, boys!" The next 
moment he fell. His comrades stopped to carry him. "Don't stop for 
me," he cried; "don't let them have the flag. Tell mother I never fal- 
tered." They were his parting words to his comrades who saved the flag. 

Five color-bearers of the Twenty-fourth Michigan were shot. Colonel 
Morrow seized the flag, but was wounded. A soldier grasj^ed it, but fell 
mortally wounded. 

General Paul was made totally blind for life by a bullet which passed 
through his eyes. General Robinson had two horses shot beneath him. 

Down the Chambersburg, down the Carlisle, the Mummasburg, and 
Harrisburg roads into the town pressed the retreating troops. It was like 
a spring freshet from a vast area of country pouring through a narrow 
gorge — divisions, brigades, regiments — infantry, artillery, and cavalry — 
were in confusion. They streamed through the fields, climbed the fences, 
the Confederates rushing on to capture them. The First Corps retired 
partly across the meadow south of the town, losing but few prisoners ; but 
north of the town the Eleventh Corps, blocked by the houses, pressed by 
Early's division, suffered great loss. 

Some of Barlow's men turned about and deliberately fired into the 
faces of the enemy, refusing to surrender, and were shot down by men 
who admired their bravery. 

" I never have seen," said General Gordon, " more desperate fighting 



AN UNEXPECTED BATTLE. 223 

than around the Almshouse, between my brigade and Barlow's, of the 
Eleventh Corps." 

General Barlow fell and was taken prisoner. Among those who sought 
shelter in the houses was Colonel Wheelock, of the Ninety-seventh New 
York, a large man, who could not make his way through the crowd, and 
who would have disdained to run had he been able to do so. He entered 
the house of Mr. Shead, followed by Confederate soldiers and an officer 
who demanded his sword. (") " I'll not surrender my sword to a rebel," 
was the reply. " Surrender your sword, or I will shoot you." " Shoot ! 
I'll not surrender it," again the defiant reply from Wheelock, who opened 
his vest, waiting for the fatal shot. A girl sprang between them — Miss 
Carrie Shead — who seized the sword, bore it away, and secreted it. His 
sword safe, Colonel Wheelock became a submissive prisoner. With the 
three thousand other prisoners he was taken outside the town, but during 
the night managed to escape, returning to Gettysburg upon the retire- 
ment of the Confederates, and regained his sword. 

General Schimmelpfennig, wdiom his soldiers greatl}' loved, and whom 
they familiarly called Schimmel, remained upon the field to the last. His 
horse was shot, and the Confederates of Dole's division were close upon 
him. He ran into the wood-shed of Mr. Garloch, jumped behind some 
barrels, and drew sticks of wood over him. The Confederates looked in, 
but did not see him. Three nights and two days he remained. Mrs. 
Garloch saw him, and her little boy dro^^ped bread behind the barrels. 
The Confederates were frequently in the shed. When, at last, on Satur- 
day, he heard the Union drum-beat in the street, he emerged from his 
hiding-place and returned to his brigade. 

Out near the battle line of the Eleventh Corps, in an enclosed lot near 
Pennsylvania College, lay a Union soldier. No one was near him ; he 
heard no footstep coming to his relief. If he uttered a cry of pain, a 
wail of agony, or call for help, there was no one to hasten to his assistance. 
For him there was but one solace — to gaze once more upon those who 
were dearest, but who were far away. When the battle was ended, the 
Confederates departed, the people of Gettysburg discovered the prostrate 
form, motionless evermore, the clinched fingers holding the photograph of 
his wife and three children. His last fading sight of things earthly was of 
their fair faces ; his last thoughts were of them. The good people buried 
him where he fell. They rephotographed the group and sent the picture 
far and wide throughout the North. It was recognized in Cattaraugus 
County, New York, as the wife and children of a soldier of the One Hun- 
dred and Fifty -fourth New York Regiment of Costar's brigade — one 



224 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 




MAJOR-GENERAL W. S. HANCOCK. 



of the men who went down through Gettysburg upon the run, and out 
npon the York road, at the last moment of the struggle. 

Half-past four o'clock came, the battle was decided, and what was left 
of the First and Eleventh corps were gathered on Cemetery Hill — the 
Eleventh Corps north of the turnpike, the First Corps south of it. 

General Hancock, commander of the Second Corps, was riding up the 
Baltimore pike, with instructions from General Meade to take command 
of the troops at Gettysbui-g. He was the junior of Howard in rank. 



AN UNEXPECTED BATTLE. 225 

" General Meade undoubtedly supposed that I was your senior, but you 
outrank me," said Hancock. (") 

" It is no time to talk about rank. I shall most cheerfully obey your 
instructions, and do all in my power to co-operate with you," Howard 
replied, taking charge of the troops north of the turnpike, Hancock south 
of it, and in a few moments they had a gleaming line of bayonets in 
position. 

It was five o'clock — the sun yet two hours in the heavens. General 
Lee and General Longstreet were by the Theological Seminary, gazing 
upon the scene, having just arrived upon the field. 

"I think that we will attack them upon the heights to-morrow morn- 
ing," said General Lee.(") 

" Will not that be a departure from the plan as proj)osed before we 
left Fredericksburg ?" suggested Longstreet. 

'' If the enemy is there to-morrow we must attack him." 

" But if he is there it will be because he is anxious that we should at- 
tack him — a good reason, in my judgment, for not doing so. Let us move 
by our right to Meade's left, and jjut our army between him and Washing- 
ton, threatening his left and rear, and thus force him to attack us in such 
position as we may select. His weak point is his left. I think we should 
move around it, threaten by the manoeuvre, and attack if we determine 
uj)on a battle. The country is admirably adapted for a defensive battle, 
and we shall surely repulse Meade by a crushing loss if we take the posi- 
tion and force him to attack us. Even if we attack the heights before us 
and drive him out, we shall be so badly crijjpled that we shall not be able 
to reap the fruits of victory. The heights of Gettysburg are in themselves 
of no more importance than the ground upon which we stand. Meade's 
army, and not its position, is our objective." 

General Lee, before starting upon the campaign, had a fixed determina- 
tion to reach a position of his own choosing, and await an attack ; but the 
two armies had come in collision, and the Confederates had already won a 
victory — another in the long list that had crowned the arms of his troops, 
who regarded themselves as invincible, and who were eager to attack in 
the morning. Their blood was wp, and so was that of General Lee. 

" He seemed under a subdued excitement, which occasionally took 
possession of him when the hunt was up and threatened his superb equi- 
poise," are the words of Longstreet. (^*) 

" The eneni}'- is in position, and I am going to whip them or they are 
going to whip me.''^'') 

At the hour of five in the afternoon I was twenty miles away. Through 
15 



226 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

tlie day I had been riding with General Gregg's division of cavalry. At three 
o'clock we were at Hanover Junction, twenty-five miles from the battle- 
field, upon the extreme right of the Union army. We had removed the sad- 
dles from our horses for a brief halt, when the booming of cannon came 
upon us from the west. Leaving the cavalry, I rode towards it, but soon 
found that it was not the cannonade of the conflict at Gettysburg, but at 
Hanover, between Kilpatrick's cavahy and the Confederate cavalry under 
Stuart. I arrived in season to see its close. 

General Stuart had captured four hundred prisoners and gathered two 
hundred wagons, which hindered him ; but he would not abandon the wag- 
ons. He bivouacked half-way between Westminster and Littlestown. His 
scouts came in during the evening of the 30th of June with the informa- 
tion that the Union cavalry was at Littlestown — Kilpatrick's two brigades. 

General Stuart, instead of marching to Littlestown, as he had intended, 
decided to get away from the Union cavalry by going north-east. Cbam- 
bliss's brigade was in advance. Fitz-Hugh Lee moved along the left flank 
to guard the train, while Hampton covered the rear. Chambliss approach- 
ed Hanover, but discovered a column of Union troops entering the town 
— Kilpatrick's division. At Aldie that officer commanded a brigade, but 
now he was in command of a division — Farnsworth's and Custer's brigades. 
Farns worth was moving quietly into Hanover, with Custer west of him. 

Stuart ordered Chambliss to charge upon the Union troops, and almost 
the first intimation Farnsworth had of the presence of the Confederates 
was the yelling of Chambliss's men as they thundered along the turnpike, 
charging upon the rear-guard, scattering it, and capturing several soldiers 
and ambulances. The Fifth New York, under Major Hammond, turned 
upon the Confederates and put them to flight. Kilj^atrick hastened up, 
formed his line, and sent word to Custer. 

Stuart planted his artillery and oj^ened fire. The Second North Caro- 
lina advanced, but was repulsed, and its commander, Colonel Payn, taken 
prisoner. Stuart had no desire to fight a battle. He was anxious rather 
to avoid one. He must join Lee, and his only aim was to hold Kilpatrick 
in check till the long train of wagons could glide by. Fitz-Hugh Lee 
joined him, and the artillery duel went on. Hampton arrived. Stuart was 
stronger than Kilpatrick, but the skirmishing went on till sunset — charges 
and countercharges around and through the town. Stuart, having secured 
the passage of his train, moved towards York, in search of General Early. 

The Union cavalry bivouacked near the town. Stuart made an all- 
night march to get beyond the reach of Kilpatrick. Horses and men were 
worn down. Whole regiments fell asleep, the horses stumbled, bringing 



AN UNEXPECTED BATTLE. 227 

the riders to the ground. J^o rest for the horses or men was allowed till 
they reached Carlisle in the afternoon of July 2, having ridden one hun- 
dred and twenty-five miles without rest. He was then thirty miles north 
of Gettysburg. 

Thus the first day of July closed upon one of the hardest fought en- 
gagements of the war, with the Confederate army well concentrated and 
elated with victory, the Union army yet widely scattered, and dispirited by 
the defeat of two corps with heavy loss. 



NOTES TO CHAPTER XI. 

( ') General Buford's Report. 

( -) General Heth's Report. 

( ^) General Gamble's Report. 

( '') Lieutenant Calef's Report. 

( ^) Captain Bronson's Statement, unpublished papers (War Department). 

( ®) J. V. Pierce, One Hundred and Forty-seventh N. Y. Regiment, National Tribune. 

( '') Captain Hall's Report. 

( *) G. C. Kimball's Memorial Address, Thirteenth Massachusetts Regiment. 

( ^) Colonel Hoffman to Governor Curtin. 

C") General Wadsvvorth's Report. 

('') General Fairchild's Report. 

('■-) General Doubleday, " Chancellorsville and Gettysburg," p. 130. 

('^) Century Magazine, November, 1886, p. 106. 

('^) Lieutenant-colonel Dudlej^ unpublished papers (War Department). 

('") Captain Hall's Statement, unpublished papers (War Department). 

('^) Lieutenant-colonel Dawes's Statement, unpublished papers (War Department). 

('") General Howard to author. 

('^) General Longstreet, " Annals of the War," p. 420. 

('*) General Howard's Report. 

(-") General Iverson's Report. 

(^') General Rodes's Report. 

(-^) General Howard's Report. 

C''^) Samuel Wilkeson to author. 

(•2^) Gen. A. P. Hill's Report. 

('-=) Mr. Shead to author. 

(•■«) General Howard to author, July 3, 1863. 

(■") General Longstreet, " Annals of the War," p. 421. 

(2«) Idem. 

(^^) General Longstreet, Century Magazine, February, 1887. 



228 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



CHAPTER XII. 

LITTLE ROUND TOP. 

WHEN night closed over the scene of tlie first day's engagement at 
Gettysburg the various corps of the Union army were widely sepa- 
rated. The rallied brigades of the First Corps were in the cemetery and 
the field immediately before it towards the town — ground now included in 
the National Cemetery. What was left of the Eleventh Corps was on the 
north side of the turnpike. The Twelfth Corps, under Slocum, had crossed 
Rock Creek, turned to the right through the pastures, and taken position in 
the woods on Culp's Hill. The Second Corps was on the march from Union- 
town, and arrived during the evening. The Third Corps was on its way 
from Emmettsburg, but did not all arrive till eight o'clock the next morn- 
ing. The Fifth Corjjs was at Bonnaughtown, live miles away in the direc- 
tion of Hanover, while the Sixth Corps was twenty-eight miles distant. 

It was one o'clock in the morning of July 2d when General Meade, 
who on Sunday had accepted the great trust laid upon him by President 
Lincoln, came up the Taneytown road, and dismounted from his horse by 
the home of Mrs. Leister. He ^vas worn down with want of sleep, with 
constant thinking as to what ought to be done. He had thought of select- 
ing Pipe Creek, near Taneytown, as a line of defence, and General Warren, 
of the Engineer Cor|)s, had been examining the ground, while General 
Humphreys had been surveying the country in the direction of Emmetts- 
burg. The battle already fought had not been anticipated. The army 
had already met with a defeat. What should he do ? Should he make 
a stand at Gettysburg, or fall back to Pipe Creek? General Hancock 
had informed him that the jjosition to which the First and Eleventh 
corps had retreated was a strong one. He had come to see. With 
General Howard he rode along the lines. The moon was shining, and he 
could dimly see the general features of the country — that Culjj's Hill 
was covered with trees, that its northern side was sharp and steep, that 
Cemetery Hill commanded a wide sweep of country, that there was a low 
ridge running south-east towards Little Round Top, two miles from the 



LITTLE ROUND TOP. 



229 



cemetery. Sitting upon his horse amid the white head -stones, he could 
look over the houses in the town and see the seminary ridge, where the 
First Corps had fought so stubbornly, and the level fields northward, 
where the Eleventh Corps had stood. He could trace the dark line of 
forest extending southward from the seminary, and see that the entire 
region would be under the sweep of artillery placed in the cemetery and 
north of it, or along the ridge. It was a place wliere possibly a battle 
might be successfully fought. He directed General Warren and General 




GENEKAL, MEADE'S HEADQUARTERS. 

From a sketch made at the time. 



Slocum to examine the ground in front of Gulp's Hill with a view of 
attacking Lee in that direction, and that breastworks should be constructed. 
From two o'clock till morning the soldiers on Cul^^'s Hill, on Cemetery 
Hill, and in the grove of oaks on the farm of Mr. Zeigler, south of the 
cemetery, were at work with axes and shovels. General Slocum informed 
General Meade that the ground in front of Culp's Hill was not favorable 
for an attack upon the Confederates, and that it would be far better to 
fight a defensive battle. 

General Lee was up very early in the morning, and was eating his 



230 



MARCHING TO VICTOEY. 



breakfast in his tent nortli of the seminary, near a small stone house, be- 
fore the sun appeared. General Longstreet came to see him, riding in from 
Cashtown, and tried to dissuade him from making an attack upon the Union 
army ; but General Lee had made up his mind to do so, and they talked 
of what would be the probable result. General Hill came, and also Gen- 
eral Heth, who was wounded in the head the day before, and who had a 
handkerchief bandaged around it. Up in a tree near by was Lieutenant- 
colonel Freemantle, of the British Army, looking across the fields with his 




GENERAL LEE'S HEADQUARTERS. 

Fi-om a photograph taken immediately after the battle. 

glass at the Union position. "With him were a Prussian and an Austrian 
officer. General Lee thought of having General Ewell begin the battle by 
attacking the Union troops at Gulp's Hill. He sent Colonel Venable to 
reconnoitre the ground, and then himself rode across the fields where the 
Eleventh Corps had fought, to take a look at the position. It was nine 
o'clock when he got back to his headquarters, and it was eleven before he 
had made up his mind just what to do. 

" It will not do to have Ewell open the attack. I have decided that 
you must make it on the extreme right," he said to Longstreet. (') 



LITTLE KOUND TOP. 231 

General Pickett's division of Longstreet's corps was still near Cham- 
bersburg, guarding the great train of wagons, and General Law's brigade 
was out on picket dutj. Law was sent for, but the village clocks were 
striking twelve before he was in from the picket line. 

" The troops must make the movement cautiously, under cover of the 
woods, so as not to be seen by the enemy," were the instructions of Lee.Q 
lie could see from his headquarters that a Union signal-officer was on Lit- 
tle Kound Top waving his flags to another by Meade's headquarters. So, 
on the Confederate side, the forenoon passed, only that the picket lines of 
the two armies in the wheat-fields and along the fences, from orchard and 
meadow, were exchanging shots, and now and then a Confederate cannon 
sent a shot whirring over the town, followed by answering shots from the 
Union cannon among the white head-stones in the cemetery. 

The sun was just rising when I mounted my horse at Hanover, twelve 
miles away. I rode towards Gettysburg, passing a long train of wagons 
and many soldiers of the Fifth Corps, who had dropped, weary and ex- 
hausted, by the road-side. The troops of the corps were east of Rock Creek, 
where they had been halted by General Meade, in anticipation of his attack- 
ing Lee ; but he having determined to fight a defensive battle, they filed 
southward through the fields, crossed the creek, turned into a pasture, 
and threw themselves wearily uj)on the ground. I rode up the Baltimore 
turnpike, with the Twelfth Corps on my right hand, partly hidden from 
view by the woods, passed the toll-gate, from which the tollman had fled, 
reached the summit of the hill where the soldiers of the Eleventh Corps, on 
my right, were lying down, and those of the First Corps, on my left, were 
crouching behind a stone-wall. On both sides the artillerymen had thrown 
up breastworks to shield themselves in part. Dismounting from my horse, 
I climbed the stairs of the arched gate-way of the cemetery and beheld the 
grand panorama of the field where yesterday's battle had been fought, the 
town, with its houses of red brick, its spires and steeples, the white walls of 
Pennsylvania College north of the town — the Almshouse beyond, where 
Barlow's division had fought and left its line of dead. With my glass 1 
could see the prostrate forms lying where they fell. A yellow flag was fly- 
ing above the cupola of the Theological Seminary, which had been taken 
for a hospital. The fields in the distance by Herr's Tavern, where the Con- 
federate cannon had been planted, were dotted with white tents, trains of 
wagons were winding here and there, and horsemen were riding rapidly. 
Southward were fields and woodlands and farm-houses — the ground where 
the great battle was to be fought. Eastward was Culp's Hill ; upon its 
western face the soldiers were at work with picks and shovels throwing up 



232 



MAKCHING TO VICTORY. 



a breastwork, behind wliich stood a Uuion battery — the Fifth Maine. We 
shall see it again bj-and-bj. Immediately around, upon Cemetery Hill, 
cannon were thickly planted, some of them pointing north, others west, 
and others south-west. A short distance southward, across the Taney- 
town road, was the grove on the farm of Mr. Zeigler. On the Emmetts- 
burg road was the brick house of Mr. Codori, with a large barn. Beyond, 
upon the west side of the road, was the house of Peter Rogers, and still 
farther away the farm-house of Mr. Sherfy, and an orchard of peach-trees, 
whence a cross-road ran eastward towards Little Round Top. Eastward 
of the peach-trees, across the green fields, a quarter of a mile, was the house 
and barn of Mr. Trostle. I could see cannon along the Emmettsburg road 
pointing westward, and regiments were lying down by the house of Mr. 




ENTRANCE TO THE CEMETERY. 



Codori and beyond it — the troops of the Third Corps, resting themselves 
after their hard march from Emmettsburg, kindling fires and cooking coffee. 
By the house of Mr. Leister, on the Taneytown road, the headquarters flag 
of General Meade was waving. The Second Corps was on the ridge west 
of it. Long lines of white-topped wagons dotted the landscape eastward. 

Descending from the gate-way, I mounted my horse to ride into Gettys- 
burg, and came to a soldier croucliing behind a picket-fence. 

"Halt! Where are you going?" he said. 

" Lito Gettysburg." 

" Into Gettysburg ! Do you know where you are ? I am on the jDicket 
line. Do you see that brick house with the window open ? That is full 
of Confederates, and they have been picking us off all the morning, and the 
quicker you get out of here the better it will be for you." 



LITTLE ROUND TOP. 233 

The house was within pistol-shot, and I rode back to the cemetery. 
General Howard was there ; his servant came with his breakfast of cold 
ham, hard biscuit, and coffee. 

" You are just in season," he said. 

He had deep religious convictions, and reverently asked God's blessing 
before eating. 

" Lieutenant," he said to an officer, " have a detail of men to take up 
these gravestones and lay them carefully upon the ground. If they are 
left standing the cannon-balls will knock them to pieces, and send the frag- 
ments about our ears. The people of the town can reset them." 

He told the story of the first day's engagement, and pointed out the 
positions of the troops. Looking across the houses, we could see at that 
moment a column of Confederates on the Chambersburg road. 

" See there ! see there, general ! Let Osborne open on them with his 
artillery," shouted Major Charles Howard, of his staff. 

" 'No, the time hasn't come. Don't be in a hurry about it ; you w411 
have enough fighting before sunset." 

The Confederates were a j)art of Doles's division changing position. 
I rode with General Howard along the lines and to the headquarters of 
General Meade, where a group of officers were consulting the maps which 
the engineers had hastily sketched. 

In the door-yard of Meade's headquarters a signal-officer was waving 
his flag in response to another on Little Round Top. 

" Large bodies of Confederate troops moving south," was the message 
received. 

I rode along the line south from Zeigler's Grove towards Mr. Codori's 
house, on the Emmettsburg road, near which was Hall's brigade of Gib- 
bon's division of the Second Corps, thrown out in advance of the ceme- 
tery ridge. A few steps farther brought me to Carr's brigade of Hum- 
phreys's division of the Third Corps. 

Some of the soldiers — First Massachusetts — were clustered round the 
door of a small house on the west side of the road eating delicious bread, 
piping hot, just baked. When Carr's brigade arrived, just before daylight, 
they saw a light in the house of Peter Rogers. Going to the door and 
looking in, they saw two tallow-candles on the mantle, and a young girl, in 
her fourteenth year, kneading dough in a tin pan, with several other pans 
on the floor with dough in them. 

"• Could you let us have some bread ?" asked a soldier. 

" Oh yes, if you can wait for it a little. My stove is small, and you 
know when one is in a hurry bread don't bake fast," said Josephine Miller, 



234 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



who invited them in to wait till the bread was ready. It was an old-fash- 
ioned stove, with an oven, but not designed for general cooking.(') 

" I think it must be done now," she said, after a little while, and took 
out two pans of most palatable bread, and put in two more, breaking the 
loaves for the soldiers. 

" What will you do when the battle begins ?" asked Colonel Baldwin, 
commanding the First Massachusetts. 



4^ 




JOSEPHINE MILLER AND HER STOVE. 

In 18S6 the First Massachusetts Regiment erected this monnmeiit upon the spot where they stood during 
the battle. Josephine Miller (Mrs. Slyder, of Troy, O.) was present. Her stove was still in the house where 
she had baked the bread. It was placed beside the mouunieut, and was photographed with Mrs. Slyder. 



" Is there really going to be a battle ? Where shall we go ?" 
" Yes, we shall have a battle right here, and you will either have to go 
to the rear or down cellar, if you have one." 

" Yes, we have a small cellar. I think we will stay ;" and Josephine 



Miller went on with her baking. 



The line which General Sickles had selected was along the Emmetts- 
burg road, southward to the peach orchard of Mr. Sherfy, thence east- 
ward towards Little Round Top. There has been much controversy as to 
whether or not General Sickles carried out General Meade's instructions 



LITTLE ROUND TOP. 235 

in the selection of the line, and also much discussion whether or not it 
was the best position. Upon both questions military men have been 
divided in opinion. 

It was past noon, and the Confederates, instead of attacking in the 
morning, as General Lee had intended the night before, were not yet in 
position. Had General Lee known the position of the Union army at 
eight o'clock in the morning, he doubtless would have attacked with great 
vigor ; but, for various reasons, the Confederate generals were slow in get- 
ting ready. Under the orders of General Lee, the troops of Longstreet 
were trying to get down through the woods by Mr. Warfield's, without being 
seen by the Union signal-officer on Little Round Top. Colonel Johnson, of 
the Engineers, was leading them.Q The column came to a halt, for he had 
reached an opening where the troops would be seen ; Longstreet became im- 
patient. Johnson was carrying out General Lee's orders, which had been 
issued directly to him by the Confederate commander, and it would be a 
breach of military etiquette were Longstreet to order him to move on re- 
gardless of the Union signal- officer ; but General Hood had received no 
orders from General Lee, and Longstreet, therefore, directed him to move 
into position by the best route, and the column took up its line of march. 

" Do you not think it would be well to send a party down into those 
woods to see what is going on ?" was the suggestion of Colonel Berdan, 
commanding the First Regiment of Union sharp-shooters west of the 
Emmettsburg road, holding the picket line.(^) 

" Yes, and I will send you supports," General Sickles replied. 

Colonel Berdan advanced with his men, deployed, and came upon 
Hood. Instantly there was a sharp rattle of musketry, lasting fifteen min- 
utes, during which time half of the men in the detachment of sharjD-shooters 
were killed or wounded. The encounter was so hotly waged by them that 
it brought Hood to a halt. He did not know just what was before him, 
and waited to find out, thus delaying the opening of the battle. 

It was three o'clock before Hood and McLaws were in position, and 
before Colonel Alexander, of Longstreet's corps, had his batteries unlim- 
bered in the edge of the woods west and south of the peach orchard. 
The general plan on the part of Lee was to swing Longstreet, together 
with R. H. Anderson's division of Hill's corps, against Meade's left flank, 
and that Ewell at the same time should strike the Twelfth Corps on Gulp's 
Hill. Longstreet frequently dismounted from his horse and walked to 
positions where he could see the Union line. General Barksdale, com- 
manding the Mississippi brigade, was eager for the battle to begin. He 
could see a Union battery in the peach orchard, and wanted to capture it. 



236 



MAECHING TO VICTORY. 



"I wish you would let me go in, general. I would take it in five 
minutes," said Barksdale. 

" Wait a little ; we are all going in presently," said Longstreet.(') 

The men were impatient, and began to pull down a fence in front of 
them. 

" Don't do that ; you will draw the enemy's fire," said Longstreet. 
He was not quite ready. But soon came the word from his lips, "For- 
ward !" and the lines moved on. 




^S^ *'v''* ^ '-' 



PEACH ORCHARD. 

The view looks west. The position is that of Clark's, Phillips's, and Bigelow's batteries. The figure is 
pointing to the orchard, occupied by the Third Maine, Second New Hampshire, Third Michigan, and Ames's 
and Hart's batteries. 



The Confederate army was never in better spirits than at that mo- 
ment, never more confident of success. 

General Longstreet saw that Sickles occupied a position easy to be 
assailed, and placed his batteries in the edge of the woods south-west of 
the peach orchard on the farm of Mr. AVarfield. McLaws's division was 
to advance directly upon the orchard, while Hood was to move towards 
Little Bound Top. Anderson's division of Hill's corps was to strike the 



LITTLE EOUND TOP. 



237 




GEN. DANIEL E. SICKLES. 



right of Sickles's line by the house where Josephine Miller was baking 
bread. 

General Law's brigade was on the extreme right of Hood's line of 
battle. Six scouts were sent out to move as rapidly as possible towards 
Great Round Top and find out the position of the Union army in that 
direction. Q They soon brought in a Union prisoner who had a surgeon's 
certificate, and who said that he belonged to the medical department, that 
the trains were east of Round Top, and not guarded. One of the scouts 
came in and reported that there were no Union troops on Round Top. 
Law hastened to Hood with the information, and protested against attack- 
ing in front. This his reason : 

"The great natural strength of the enemy's position in our front 
rendered the result of a direct attack extremely uncertain ; that, if suc- 
cessful, the victory would be purchased at too great a sacrifice of life. 



238 



MAKCHING TO VICTOEY. 



and our troops would be in no condition to improve it ; that the attack 
was unnecessary, because they could easily gain the left and rear of the 
enemy ; that it would compel the enemy to change front and abandon 
his position. 

" General Hood called up Captain Hamilton of his staff, and requested 
nie to repeat the protest to him. He directed Hamilton to find Long- 
street as soon as possible, to deliver the protest, and say to him that he 




POSITION OF UNION AND CONFEDERATE TROOPS, 3.30 P.M., JULY 3. 



[Hood] indorsed it fully. Hamilton rode off at once, but in about ten 
minutes returned, accompanied by one of General Longstreet's staff-offi- 
cers, who said to General Hood in my hearing, ' General Longstreet orders 
that you begin the attack at once.' Hood turned to me and merely said, 
' You hear the order.' I at once moved my brigade to the assault. . . . 
General Longstreet has since said that he repeatedly advised against a 
front attack, and suggested a movement by our right flank. He may 



LITTLE ROUND TOP. 239 

have thought, after the rejection of this advice by General Lee, that it 
was useless to press the matter further." 

Longstreet had eight brigades, and Anderson five — thirteen in all — 
with the brigades of Hill's Corps in reserve, which were moving to attack 
the six brigades of the Third Corps. To understand the battle, we are to 
keep in mind the uncertainty of General Meade as to the intentions of 
Lee, From Little Round Top Confederate troops could be seen moving 
south, while from Cemetery Hill I could see those north of the town mov- 
ing east. With this uncertainty before him. General Meade was holding 
the Fifth Corps in reserve not far from his headquarters, that he might 
use it in any direction. The line of defence which General Meade had 
selected was along the ridge from the cemetery to Little Round Top, but 
the Third Corps was not on the ridge ; it was in front of it, and made 
a sharp angle at the peach orchard. General Hunt, commanding the artil- 
lery, rode along the line with General Sickles to the peach orchard, and 
down to Little Round Top. With his quick eye he saw that the peach 
orchard was quite as high as the ground along the ridge between the 
position of the Second Corps and Little Round Top ; that it would be a 
position where the Confederates might plant their artillery and pour a 
destructive fire upon the Union line. For that reason it might be desira- 
ble to hold it ; but the line there turned a right angle, and that was a dis- 
advantage. This is what General Hunt says in regard to it : 

"The salient line proposed by General Sickles, although much longer, 
afforded excellent positions for our artillery ; its occupation would cramp 
the movements of the" enemy, bring us nearer his lines, and afford us fa- 
cilities for taking the offensive. It was, in my judgment, the better line 
of the two, provided it were strongly occupied, for it was the only one on 
the field from which we could have passed from the defensive to the 
offensive with a prospect of decisive results. But General Meade had not, 
until the arrival of the Sixth Corps, a sufficient number of troops at his 
disposal to risk such an extension of his lines ; it w^ould have required 
both the Third and Fifth corps, and left him without any reserve. Had 
he known that Lee's attack would be postponed till 4 p.m. he might have 
occupied the line in the morning ; but he did not know this, expected an 
attack at any moment, and, in view of the vast risks involved, adopted a 
defensive policy and ordered the occupation of the safe line."(') 

It was at this moment that the troops of Ewell were moving east tow- 
ards Gulp's Hill, upon which the batteries on Cemetery Hill opened fire ; 
it was also the moment of the encounter between the sharp-shooters and 
Hood. 



240 MARCHING TO A^CTORY. 

General Meade rode down to the peacli orchard and examined the 
line, at the suggestion of General Hunt, who says : 

" I was here met by Captain Randolph, the Third Corps chief of artil- 
lery, who informed me that he had been ordered to place his batteries on 
the new line. Seeing Generals Meade and Sickles not far ofi in conver- 
sation, and supposing that General Meade had consented to the occupation, 
I sent at once to the Reserve for more artillery, and authorized other gen- 
eral officers to draw on the same source." 

There were one hundred and eight guns in the Reserve Artillery, 
which could be summoned for nse on any part of the field, in addition to 
the two hundred and twelve attached to the several corps. 

General Sickles had stationed Ward's brigade, with four guns of 
Smith's New York Battery, on the rocky ridge west of the Devil's Den, 
to hold the extreme left of his line and the approach to Little Round 
Top. He had stationed Winslow's !N"ew York Battery on the eastern edge 
of a wheat-field east of Rose's house, between AVard's brigade and De Tro- 
briand's brigade, which was located in the woods west of the wheat -field 
with part of Burling's brigade. This brings us to the gap extending from 
the woods to the peach orchard — quite a distance along the road, where 
there was not a regiment of infantry. The other regiments of Burling's 
brigade, together with Graham's brigade and Clark's New Jersey Battery, 
held the line in the peach orchard facing south towards Rose's house. 
Humphreys's division of the Third Corps, with several batteries, held the 
Emmettsburg road northward to Codori's house. It was too late to make 
any change in the line, for the Confederate batteries were opening fire, 
and the battle must begin with the troops as they stood. Lee's army con- 
sisted of forty brigades, and eighteen of them were in position to take part 
in the attack upon the six brigades of the Third Corps, which must look 
to the Second and Fifth corps for assistance. 

The horses of the Union Reserve Artillery had eaten their oats, the 
cannoneers were resting beneath the shade of the trees, smoking their 
pipes and playing cards, when an aide arrived from General Hunt with 
an order to Colonel McGilvery for more batteries. Hart's Fifteenth New 
York, Phillips's Fifth Massachusetts, and Bigelow's Ninth Massachusetts 
went out past Trostle's house ; Hart's to take position in the peach orchard, 
Phillips's and Bigelow's to fill the gap along the road leading eastward 
from the orchard. 

The sun was going down the western sky — a lovely summer afternoon. 
The swallows were twittering around the eaves of Mrs. Leister's humble 
home, unmindful of the coming and going of men on horseback. Fleecy 



LITTLE ROUND TOP. 2i3 

clouds flecked the sky, and a gentle breeze came from tlie south-west, as 
jet untainted with nitrous and sulphurous fumes. For an hour there had 
been a pattering fire, like the first drops which precede a summer shower. 
Suddenly the Confederate cannon in the woods by Mr. Warfield's opened 
fire ; also those north of Culjj's Hill — the artillery of EwelTs corps. The 
Union batteries were quick to respond. Then came the rattling fire of 
Stoughton's sharp-shooters — the Second Regiment, posted behind a wall 
and fences — delivered into the faces of Law's Alabama brigade. The 
sharp-shooters held their ground with great pertinacity. "My whole 
regiment," writes Colonel Shefiield, of the Forty -eighth Alabama, "was 
brought to the front the third time, only to be driven back."(') 

"In a few seconds one-fourth of my regiment were killed or disabled," 
is the statement of the colonel of the Forty-fourth Alabama.('°) 

"When the sharp-shooters were compelled to fall back, a portion re- 
treated past the left flank of Ward's brigade, in front of Little Round 
Top, held by the Fourth Maine. We shall see them again. 

Onward through the woods, crossing the brook which trickles south 
from Mr. Rose's house, past his spring -house, where he kept his milk, 
marched Law's and Robertson's brigades, following the sharp-shooters. 
They were in the w^oods, where there are large trees and bowlders. They 
began to ascend tlie slope towards the position held by Ward. 

" Don't fire until you can see them plainly," were the instructions of 
Ward. 

The troops of his brigade could hear the rustling of last year's dead 
leaves- as the sharp-shooters came streaming in. Smith's four cannon be- 
gan to flash, and then the battle broke out in all its fury — rolls of mus- 
ketr}^ the yells of the Texans of Hood's division, and the cheers of the 
Union men, the wails of the wounded commingled. 

This a desci'iption by a Confederate artilleryman : 

" On the slope of a wooded hill our infantry were forming for a 
charge. Federal infantry were thick in front of them, assisted by artil- 
lery, which poured a storm of shrapnel into our ranks. Rhett's battery 
of our battalion was already blazing away from the crest of the hill, and 
they were said to have lost thirty men in as many minutes. 

" ' Cannoneers, mount ! Forward !' 

" Quickly we rushed between the already moving cannon-wheels, and 
nimbly sprang into our seats — all except John Hightower, who missed 
his hold, and the great heavy weight rolled over his body. Did we halt? 
IS^o ! Not if your brother falls by your side must you heed his dying 
wail! This is the grim discipline of war. 



244 MARCHING TO VICTOKY. 

"Never shall I forget the scene presented on this hill opposite Round 
Top Mountain. The Federal shrapnel rattled like hail through the trees 
around us, while our infantry, which was preparing to charge, swayed 
backward and forward, in and out, like a storm-cloud vexed by contrary 
winds. 

" ' Give it to them, boys !' said one of the infantry. 

" ' We'll do it,' I responded. 
. " ' Ah, I see you are of the I'ight grit.' 

"When he spoke to me I was repeating the lines — 

"'For riglit is right, siuce God is God, 
And riglit the day must win; 
To doubt would be disloyalty, 
To falter would be sin.' 

Like many other conceited little beings wlio inhabit this conceited little 
world, I had presumed to interpret the will of God, and anticipate His 
policy in the government of this world. 

" ' Fire ! Fire ! Fire !' And each gun is discharging its leaden terrors 
into the ranks of the foe. But now comes the brave infantry. Wofford 
of Georgia, his hat off, and his bald head shining in the sun, dashes through 
our battery, followed by his brigade. Ont flashed Captain Parke's sword, 
while the Avords 'Hurrah for you of the bald head' issued from his lips. 
'Huri-ah for you of the bald head' Avas repeated by the cannoneers, while 
the charging Georgians swept down the hill-side, driving the retreating foe 
to the opposite hill."(") 

At this hour I rode up the eastern slope of Little Round Top, tied 
my horse, clambered over the rocks, and came to the summit, where stood 
an ofiicer of the Signal Corps and his assistant. The panorama of the 
battle was before me. At my feet were Plum Run and a meadow thick- 
ly strewn with bowlders. Beyond them the Devil's Den, with Ward's 
brigade and tlie four guns of Smith's battery upon the crest of the ridge. 
North-west of the ledge was Winslow's battery, on the eastern edge of a 
wheat-field ; and up the line, beyond another grove, were Bigelow's Ninth 
Massachusetts, Phillips's Fifth Massachusetts, and Clark's batteries. In 
the peach orchard was Hart's ; along the Emmettsburg road a line of 
guns, all smoking. A white cloud was rising from the woods between 
the Devil's Den and Rose's house, witii rolls of musketry mingling with 
the cannonade. From the woods by Warfield's house the Confederate 
cannon were sending solid shot and shells towards the peach orchard. 
Northward towards the seminary, and the scene of the lirst day's battle, 



LITTLE KOUND TOP. 245 

the Confederate artillery was sending its missiles tlirongli the air. Look- 
ing towards the cemetery, I saw it covered with a white cloud. 

De Trobriand's and Ward's brigades, and AVinslow's and Smith's bat- 
teries, were confronting Robertson's, Law's, Benning's, Semmes's, Ker- 
shaw's, Wofford's, and Anderson's Confederate brigades. Union ambu- 
lances were coming out of the woods and moving towards the Taneytown 
road. Staff-ofKcers were galloping over the fields and pastures, carrying 
orders. The battle-cloud was ^too dense to see what was going on beyond 
the Confederate lines, but from the woods came the prolonged yell of the 
Confederates, mingled with the hurrahs of the Union soldiers. The air 
was thick with shells. White clouds suddenly burst into view where 
before there was only the sky. There was a whirring of jagged pieces 
of iron, mingled with the continuous singing of the leaden rain. 

General Meade had authorized Sickles to call upon General Sykes, of 
the Fifth Corps, for reinforcements, and Barnes's division moved forward 
towards the wheat-field, where Winslow's battery was sending canister into 
the ranks of the Confederates. 

The battle was coming nearer. It began to break at the foot of Little 
Round Top on the flank of the Fourth Maine. All this time the only 
persons on Little Round Top were the signal-officer and his assistant and 
myself. Another came, General Warren, engineer-in-chief of the army. 
He took a survey of the scene, saw that the Confederates were folding 
round the left flank of Ward's brigade ; that Little Round Top was the 
key to the position. These his words : 

" The whole line of the enemy moved on us in the most confident 
tones. While I was with the signal-officer the musket-balls began to fiy 
around us, and he was about to fold up his flags and withdraw, but 
remained at my request and kept waving them in defiance. Seeing troops 
going out on the peach orchard road, I rode down the hill, and fortunately 
met my old brigade, General Ward commanding. It had already passed 
the point, and I took the responsibility to detach Colonel O'Rorke, the 
head of whose regiment I had struck, who, on hearing my few words of 
explanation about the position, moved at once to the hill-top. About this 
time First Lieutenant Charles E. Hazlett, of the Fifth Artillery, with his 
battery of rifled cannon, arrived. He comprehended the situation instant- 
ly, and planted his guns on the summit of the hill."('^) 

Vincent's brigade was also sent by General Sykes on AVarren's repre- 
sentations, and came up the hill on the run. 

There were too many bullets in the air for the comfort of a non-com- 
batant, and I went down the hill, meeting Vincent's brigade. A few 



2iG MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

minutes later the battle was raging furiously on the western slope and 
around the summit. 

This the storj as told by one of its officers: "Ilazlett's battery came 
rapidly up and plunged directly through our ranks, the horses urged to 
frantic efforts by the whips of their drivers, and the cannoneers assisting 
at the wheels. As we reached the crest a never-to-be-forgotten scene 
burst upon us. A great basin lay before us full of smoke and lire, and 
literally swarming with riderless horses and lighting, fleeing, and pursuing 
men. The air was saturated with the sulphurous fumes of battle, and 
was ringing with the shouts and groans of the combatatits. The wild 
cries of charging lines, the rattle of musketry, the booming of artillery, 
and the shrieks of the wounded were the orchestral accompaniments of 
a scene like a very hell itself."('^) 

The attack of Hood was upon the position held by Ward's brigade, 
with the purpose of gaining Little Hound Top. The iirst shock fell upon 
Ward and De Trobriand ; Sweitzer's and Tilton's brigades came to their 
assistance — Sweitzer in the woods south of the wheat-field, and Tilton in 
the field. Tilton's troops were wholly exposed, while the Confederates were 
behind a stone-wall, and the Union troops were compelled to fall back. 

Caldwell's division of the Second Corps came down past Trostle's 
house. The line formed with Cross's brigade in the woods south of the 
wheat-field, with Brooks's in rear. Kelley's brigade was in the wheat- 
field, and in the grove west of it, with Zook's in the second line. In the 
struggle Cross and Zook are both mortally wounded. 

Like the waves of the sea eddying among the rocks of a rugged shore, 
so surged the contending forces over the knolls, along the ravines, the 
roads, and in the wheat-field. 

Brooks dashed upon Semmes's Confederate brigade and drove it 
through the woods, across the ravine, past Rose's spring-house, to the top 
of the hill beyond. 

The Confederates rallied, and Brooks was driven in turn. 

Ayres's division of the Fifth Corps, the Regulars of the United States 
Army, engaged in the conflict, taking the place of Caldwell's division of 
the Second Corps. In a very short time nearly one-half were killed or 
wounded. Crawford's division of the Second Corps went down to fight 
on the same ground. There was much swaying backward and forward 
in the wheat-field, in the woods west and south of it; firing across the 
stone wall; Confederate brigades striking Union brigades in flank, to find 
themselves in turn out-flanked ; the Confederates pushing on with great 
bravery, persistence, and energy, meeting stubborn resistance, but gradu- 



LITTLE ROUND TOP. 



247 



ally gaining ground — fold- 
ing round the left flank of 
the Union troops — and Rob- 
ertson's brigade advancino; 
from bowldtir to bowlder, 
tree to tree, up the southern 
slope of Little Round Top, 
till Colonel Chamberlain, 
commanding the Twentieth 
Maine, on tiie left of Vin- 
cent's brigade, was obliged 
to form his troops in the 
shape of the letter U. The 
Confederates lire up the 
hill, picking off the Union 
officers one by one. Yin- 
cent, Weed, Ilazlett, all fell, 
also Colonel O'Rorke. 

The Confederates were 
astonished to receive a vol- 
ley from behind their backs, 
coming from a squad of 
men sheltered behind rocks 
and trees, tired by the sharp- 
shooters of Stoughton's reg- 
iment, whom we saw re- 
treating past Ward's bri- 
gade at the beginning of 
the conflict. Robertson's 
troops turned to see whence 
the volley came ; Vincent's 
troops thereupon sprang 
over the rocks and dashed 
down the hill, capturing 
two colonels, fifteen other 
officers — nearly five hun- 
dred prisoners in all — driv- 
ing the Confederates back 
to the bowlders of the Dev- 
il's Den. 




248 MARCHING TO VICTOEY. 

' We are not to think tliat there have been silence and inactivity tlie 
while bj Sherfy's peach orchard and in the fields west of it and south- 
ward by Rose's house. From the beginning of the battle the ground has 
been swept by the Union and Confederate batteries. When Hood's troops 
came out of the woods by Mr. Warfield's and advanced towards Rose's 
house, the Union batteries changed their line of fire, making fearful havoc 
in the ranks of Semmes's brigade. The Fiftieth Georgia lost a third of 
its men by the enfilading fire of the batteries which Sickles had placed in 
position east of the orchard. ('*) 

Kershaw's South Carolinians came through Rose's door-yard with a 
strong line of skirmishers. At the same moment Barksdale's Mississippians 
and "VVofford's Georgians advanced against the peach orchard. We have 
seen the whole of the Fifth Corps and two divisions of the Second Corj)s 
engaged in the struggle down by the wheat-field. Sickles has no reserves ; 
there are no Union troops at hand to help maintain the position at the or- 
chard. Barksdale is brave and impetuous, and urges on his troops. 

Sickles sees that he cannot hold the angle. McGilvery orders the bat- 
teries in the orchard, also Clark and Phillips, to limber up and hasten to 
the rear. The regiments of Graham's and Burlings brigades are falling 
back, fighting obstinately, pressed by Barksdale and the brigades of An- 
derson from the west, with Kershaw thrusting his troops into the gap east 
of the orchard. They must fall back or be cut off. The batteries from 
the orchard, leaving many of their horses killed or wounded behind them, 
make their way eastward past Trostle's house, the men tugging at the 
wheels to help the limping, wounded animals. 

McGilvery rides to Captain Bigelow, commanding the l^inth Massa- 
chusetts. " Limber up and get out as cpiick as you can," he shouts. 

" I shall lose all my men in limbering up, but I can retire by prolong;" 
and the gunners stretch out the ropes, hitch the horses to them, and so, 
loading his cannon with double charges of canister, lie begins to fall back 
through the field towards Trostle's house, firing at Kershaw advancing 
through the field south of the road. But down through the peach orchard 
came Barksdale, following the retreating troops of Burling and Graham. 

"Keep back Kershaw's skirmishers with canister," was Bigelow's 
order to Lieutenant Milton, commanding two guns on the left. " Send 
solid shot into Barksdale's men," the order to Lieutenants Erickson and 
Whitaker.C^) 

To keep clear of the fire of the cannon a portion of Barksdale's troops 
moved to the right. The guns were in Trostle's door-yard, and a portion 
of the Mississippians ran to gain the shelter of the barn, firing from the 



LITTLE BOUND TOP. 249 

windows. The Twenty-first Mississippi advanced directly down tlie road 
and across the field from the orchard. Kershaw the while was advanc- 
ing on the left, the Sontli Carolinians jumping over a w^all and creeping, 
under its shelter, towards the battery. 

'No infantry supports, except a handful of men — not a dozen in all — of 
the One Hundred and Eighteenth Pennsylvania, of Tilton's brigade, are at 
hand. Graham's and Brewster's brigades have been pushed back ; Hum- 
phreys's division is changing front to meet Barksdale, widening the gap 
by Trostle's. 

It is the crisis of the conflict, the moment of the struggle on Little 
Kound Top. McGilvery, leaving the Ninth Massachusetts Battery to hold 
to the last the position at Trostle's, is bringing twenty-five guns into posi- 
tion along the ridge. These his parting words to Bigelow : 

"There is not an infantryman back of you ; you must remain and sac- 
rifice your battery if need be until I can find some batteries to put in 
position and cover 3^ou."(") 

Down upon the battery came the Mississippians, shooting horses and 
men, receiving double-shotted charges till the canister was all gone. Lieu- 
tenant Milton, seeing the horses of the other pieces dropping, tore down 
a gap in the wall, leaped his over it, and escaped with two pieces ; but 
those attached to the other guns were shot. 

Some of the men were killed, but the living bore the rammers and 
sponges from the field so that the Confederates could not use the guns. 
Captain Bigelow is wounded, and falls from his horse. Lieutenant Erick- 
son, twice wounded, falls beside his gun, and his horse goes upon the run 
into the lines of the Mississippians. Lieutenant Whitaker is wounded, 
but escapes. Bigelow is lifted upon another horse and reaches the rear. 
One cannoneer is killed while trying to spike his gun. Of the four bat- 
tery ofiicers one is killed, another mortally wounded, the third slightly 
wounded. Of seven sergeants two are killed and four wounded. Eighty 
out of the eighty-eight horses have been shot. The battery has been sac- 
rificed, but it has accomplished a great end in delaying for half an hour 
the advance of Kershaw and Barksdale, who otherwise would have had 
a clear and unopposed passage to the crest of the ridge. 

General Sickles was wounded by Trostle's barn, and Hancock, of the 
Second Corps, was sent by General Meade to take command. 

The Mississippians gave a shout of victory when they seized Bigelow's 
four guns. In the rush their lines had been broken, and it took time 
for them to reform. South of them Woiford was pushing towards the 
ridge, when there came a sheet of flame from its crest. It was McGil- 



250 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

very's opening fire — so destructive that the Georgians could not face it, 
but were compelled to find slielter behind rocks, trees, and fences. 

We have seen Caldwell's and Ayres's divisions of the Second Corps 
engaged in the struggle in front of Little Round Top. Hancock has 
only Gibbon's division remaining. It is seven o'clock ; the sun a half- 
hour above the horizon. Humphreys's division of the Third Corps is still 
holding the Emmettsburg road by Codori's, but its left flank, instead of 
facing west, is formed to face south to meet Barksdale. 

The time has come for Longstreet to hurl the whole of Anderson's 
division of Confederates into the conflict ; and Wilcox's brigade comes 
across the road a little south of the house where Josephine Miller baked 
her bread, falling upon the Union batteries before the drivers could hitch 
on the horses. This the account of a Confederate officer : 

'•We rushed forward and captured several pieces of artillery and cais- 
sons. Some of them were defended very gallantly, firing grape at us 
when within fifty yards or less. One little fellow, apparently not more 
than fourteen, sat erect on the lead-horse, looking straight at tlie front, 
trying to whip his horses forward. His two wdieel-horses had been shot, 
and he did not know it. While I was admiring him some excited Con- 
federates, to my inexpressible regret, shot him down. We halted and 
sheltered ourselves as best we could, and kept up the fight for jjerhaps 
half an hour. One time, evidently without loaded guns, the enemy 
charged up very close — say within forty yards — but were driven. At 
last our line was broken on the left, and we fell back, but could not take 
the captured cannon. "('') 

In the meadow east of Codori's house the battle rages with great fury. 
Hancock sees that it is a critical moment, and sends General Willard with 
three regiments to meet Barksdale, who is riding everywhere, urging on 
his men — a conspicuous figure. It is his nature to be aggressive. His 
speeches in Congress, before the war, were ever vehement. He has pressed 
the conflict; has captured four guns. A little farther and he will be upon 
Cemetery Ridge. Suddenly he reels in his saddle. A bullet has pierced 
him, and he falls M'ith a mortal wound. Willard's men rush past him, 
driving the Mississippians, who in turn rally to rescue their wounded 
leader. Willard also falls with a mortal wound. 

We are not to think that the men of the Third Corps, who have been 
forced back from the road and the orchard, have fled ; on the contrary', 
though the ranks are broken and in disorder, the ground is held with great 
obstinacy. Hancock has ordered in nearly all of Gibbon's division. Gen- 
eral Meade has ordered Slocuni from Culp's Hill, and the troops of the 



LITTLE ROUND TOP. 



253 



Sixtli and Twelftli corps 
are coming, but M'ill 
tliey be in season to roll 
back the Confederates 
before they gain pos- 
session of the ridge? 
The sun is sinking ; 
men can see but dimly 
tlirough the murky bat- 
tle-clouds. Hancock 
discovers Wilcox's Con- 
federate brigade, thinks 
the troops a part of his 
own command, rides 
towards them, but is 
Avelcomed by a volley 
which brings down his 
aide. Captain Miller.('") 
Upon the ridge behind 
him is Thomas's bat- 
tery, with eight com- 
panies of the First 
Minnesota Regiment 
(Colonel Coville) sup- 
porting it — two hun- 
dred and fifty-two men. 
Hancock rides up to 
the regiment. This the 
story as told by one of 
its officers : 

"Just then Hancock 
rode up, and, unable to 
conceal his agitation, 
asked, in almost an- 
guished tones, ' Great 
God, is this all the men 
we have here ?' . . . jSTot 
a hundred yards behind 
us was the Taneytown 
road, crowded with our 






~ l-[^ T^ 




254 MARCHING TO VICTOKY. 

wagons, and be^-ond tliem tlie liospitals and trains. If Hancock could only 
stop tliat charging mass for five minutes. Pointing to tlie smoke-covered 
masses of the advancing foe, he cried, ' Colonel Coville, advance and take 
those colors !' 

" ' Forward !' shouted our gallant colonel ; and as one man the regiment 
arose, and, as if on review, stepped down the slope towards the enemy. 
Their cannon opened on us, and shell aiid solid shot tore through the ranks, 
and the more deadly Enfield rifles of their infantry were centred on us 
alone. At every step fall our men, but no one wavers. Every gap is closed 
up, and, bringing down their bayonets, the boys press shoulder to shoulder. 
Five color-bearers are shot down, and five times our flag goes proudly for- 
ward. Within a hundred — within fifty yards of the fire, one-cpiarter of our 
men ali-eady fallen and yet no sliot has been fired. 

" ' Charge i' rang the order along the line, and with a wild cheer we ran 
at them. 

" Their extended line swept round our flanks like the waters around 
a rock ; but before us they gave way, for we empty our guns with the 
muzzles at their very hearts. A perfect swath of men sink upon the 
ground, and their living recoil back upon their second line. Their sup- 
porting lines, confused and excited, wildly commence firing through the 
mass in front, slaughtering their own men and throwing them into confu- 
sion. 

" Our object had been obtained. At the instant, a battery on our left 
opened and poured a few rapid vollej's into the confused mass, and swept 
it from the field. Tlie enemy had disappeared, all but their dead and 
wounded, and over their prostrate bodies rang the hearty cheers of our 
reinforcing troops. The almost fatal attack of the Confederates had been 
repulsed, but where was the First Minnesota? Only forty-seven men now 
gathered around our colors — two hundred and five killed and wounded — 
none missing. It was the Thermopyhe of our regiment."('^) 

It was the twenty-five guns of McGilvery, together with Thomas's bat- 
tery, which hurled canister into the ranks of the Confederates. 

The critical moment had come and gone, for in the gloaming the troops 
of the Sixth and Twelfth corps, and Stannard's Vermont Brigade, attached 
to the First Corps, were forming on Cemetery Ridge, and it was their 
cheers which rang through the enveloping battle-cloud. 

Lonffstreet examined the Union lines. He saw that it w'ould be a 
useless sacrifice to attempt to force them, and so the sound of the strife 
died away, the cannons' lips were cooling, and the wearied soldiers of both 
armies threw themselves upon the ground for rest ; the Confederates in 



LITTLE EOUND TOP. 



257 



the fields along the Emmettsburg road, and behind the ledges of the 
Devil's Den, and in the fields between Rose's house and the orchard. 

Though the -contest had ceased in the fields around Codori's and Tres- 
tle's farm-houses, it began suddenly amid the woods on Gulp's Hill and on 
the northern slope of Cemetery Hill. 







f^^WWH^Viiv*! Ai«- **^ 



^tc^f^^^^ii^M^ 






WHERE WEIDERICK S BATTERY STOOD. 

The view is e.ast towimls Gulp's Hill. Stevens's Fifth Maine Battery was under the trees in the distnuce 
at the light hand. Enstis's briirade was behind the stoue wall in the centre of the view. The Confederates 
charged up the hill from the left. 

Johnson's division of Ewell's corps Avas advancing to turn the right 
flank of the Union army. All of the Twelftli Corps, with the exception 
of Green's brigade, had been taken from Gulp's Kill to roll back the Con- 
federates under Longstreet. Green had drawn out his brigade into a 
thin line to hold all the ground. The Union troops had thrown up breast- 
works, but Johnson captured them with ease, and, satisfied with what he 
had done — not knowing that thirty rods farther, and lie would be in pos- 
session of the Baltimore turnpike — rested for the night. 

It was nine o'clock when Hays's and Hoke's brigades of Early's division, 
creeping stealthily along a hedge fence at the foot of the northern slope of 
17 



258 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

Cemetery Hill, with a yell, rushed upon Weiderick's battery and Ames's 
brigade of tlie Eleventh Corps. There was a tierce struggle, hand-to-hand 
lights, the cannoneers wielding their rammers. One Union soldier seized 
a stone and hurled it upon a Confederate, dashing out his brains. Sergeant 
Geible, of the One Hundred and Seventh Ohio, carrying the colors, was 
shot. A Confederate soldier seized them. Adjutant Young shot him with 
his revolver, but the next moment two bullets pierced him. A Confeder- 
ate officer aimed a blow at his head, which Lieutenant Suhrer parried, and 
the colors were saved. 

The Union troops in the field north of the turnpike were driven, and 
Confederates for a few moments held the cannon, but the Fifth Maine 
Battery, under Lieutenant Whittier, on the western slope of Culp's Hill, 
opened upon the Confederates with an enfilading fire. Eustis's brigade, 
behind a wall in the hollow east of the hill, fired to the left-oblique. Car- 
roll's brigade came upon the double-quick across the eastern slope of Cem- 
etery Hill, sent by Hancock, and the Confederates were driven, leaving 
the ground thickly strewn with killed and wounded. 

It was ten o'clock before the contest ended. So closed the second 
day. 

NOTES TO CHAPTER XII. 

( ') Longstreet, "Annals of the War." p. 432. 

( -) Longstreet, Ceiitury Magazine, February, 1887. 

( ^) Josephine Miller to author. 

( '') Longstreet, "Annals of the War," p. 422. 

( *) Berdan, Statement, National Tribune, 1886. 

( ^) Owen, " In Camp and Battle," p. 244. 

( ') General Law, Century Magazine, December, 1886. 

( **) General Hunt, Century Magazine, December, 1886. 

( ') Colonel Sheffield, unpublished papers (War Department). 

(}^) Colonel Perry, unpublished papers (War Department). 

(") " Story of a Boy's Company," p. 139. 

('-) General Warren to Porter Farley, Rochester Democrat, December 3, 1877. 

('^) Porter Farley, Rochester Democrat, December 3, 1877. 

Q*) General McLaws to J. W. Baker, " History of the Ninth Massachusetts Battery." 

('*) Major Bigelow," History of the Ninth Massachusetts Battery." 

(■6) Idem. 

(!') Colonel Herbert, Eighth Alabama, unpublished papers (War Department). 

('*) General Walker," History of the Second Corps," p. 283. 

C') McGinnis, Memorial Address, before First Minnesota Regiment. 



CEMETERY EIDGE. 259 



CHAPTER XIII. 

C K M E T E R Y R I D G E . 

WHAT next shall be done ? is the great question ever confronting a 
general commanding an army. In battle he must be quick to de- 
cide. General Lee did not hesitate. He called no council of his officers, 
but acted on his own judgment. Stuart had arrived at last with the cav- 
alry, after a long ride from Carlisle. A. P. Hill and Evvell had swept the 
First and Eleventh Union corps from their position on the first day. Long- 
street had pushed the Third Corps from the Emmettsburg road, had all 
but gained Little Round Top, had compelled Meade to hurry a portion of 
the Twelfth Corps from Culp's Hill, which enabled Johnson's division of 
Ewell's corps to gain possession of a coveted position without fighting a 
battle. Johnson was where he could threaten Meade's right and rear, 
only a short distance from the Baltimore turnpike. Stuart had come 
down from the north, and was in the best possible position to act in con- 
cert with Johnson, and make havoc of Meade's trains. Pickett's division 
of Longstreet's corps had arrived from Cashtown. Johnson's and Pick- 
ett's troops were fresh, and so were Posey's and Mahone's brigades of 
Hill's corps, and Smith's, of Ewell's. Longstreet's success in pushing the 
Third Corps from the Emmettsburg road would enable him to plant all 
the artillery along that position, and pour a destructive fire upon the cen- 
tre of Meade's line; and at the right moment he would hurl Pickett and 
Anderson upon that point, break through, and, in conjunction with John- 
son's division on Culp's Hill and Stuart with the cavalry, make the rout 
of the Union army complete. That the plan of General Lee, who ordered 
Ewell to begin the attack at daylight. Johnson was reinforced by Daniel's 
and O'Neal's brigades. 

Early in the morning General Lee rode to Longstreet's headquarters. 
" General," said Longstreet, " I have had my scouts out all night, and I 
find that you still have an excellent opportunity to move around to the 
right of Meade's army and manoeuvre him into attacking us."(') 

" The enemy is there, and I am going to strike him," Lee replied, 
pointing towards Cemetery Hill. 



260 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

" General, I have been a soldier all my life. I have been with soldiers 
engaged in fights by couples, by squads, companies, regiments, divisions, 
and armies, and should know as well as any one what soldiers can do. It 
is my opinion that no fifteen thousand men ever arrayed for battle can 
take that position." 

General Lee entered upon no argument, but directed Longstreet to 
prepare Pickett's division for the attack. These Longstreet's words : " I 
should not have been so urgent had I not foreseen the hopelessness of the 
proposed assault. I felt that I must say a word against the sacrifice of my 
men ; I felt that my motives were such that General Lee would or could 
not misconstrue them. I said no more, however, but turned away." 

General Meade had been turning over the great question as to what 
should be done. Ought not the army to fall back to a stronger position, 
where, joined by reinforcements, it could make victory sure ? In the first 
day's battle the First and Eleventh corps were cut to pieces. Thousands 
of stragglers had made their way towards Westminster and Taneytown. 
In the fight of the second day the Third Corps, small at the beginning, 
had suffered fearful loss. The Fifth Corps had made frightful sacrifice; 
the Second Corps had lost many men ; the Sixth and Twelfth corps alone 
were fresh. General Meade held a consultation of his corps commanders. 
The majority were opposed to retreating. To retreat would be acknowl- 
edgment of defeat ; the army was not defeated. If it had suffered great 
losses Lee's had been greater, so they reasoned. 

I passed the night in a small house near Rock Creek, a short distance 
south of the turnpike. I did not know that I was within musket-shot of 
the extreme left of the Confederate line, with only the pickets between. 
I was early in the saddle, and found Ruger's division of the Twelfth Corps 
was lying in the pastures along the Baltimore turnpike. On the two hills 
south w^ere three batteries of the Reserve Artillery, the cannon pointing 
north, to rain shells upon the woods where the Confederates were holding 
the Union breastworks, which they had seized in the night. 

The clouds hung low upon the hills. It was a sultry morning. I 
heard two guns, deep and heavy, breaking the stillness ; two more, and 
then the uproar began. They were Union cannon. General Meade had 
taken the offensive, determined to recover Gulp's Hill. It was an an- 
nouncement to General Lee that the Union army was to fight it out upon 
the spot ; that, instead of being disheartened, it was about to put forth its 
aggressive strength. 

Emerging from a grove, the scene burst upon me. The cemetery, 
Powers's Hill, and McAllister's Hill, south of the turnpike, were aflame. 



CEMETERY RIDGE. 261 

sending shells into the green wood north of the turnpike. There were a 
few musket-shots from the skirmishers in the woods upon the hill. Slo- 
cum's troops were preparing for the assault. 

The four brigades which left Gulp's Hill and went upon the double- 
quick towards Little Round Top at sunset returned to the Baltimore turn- 
pike at eleven in the night, to find that the Confederates had quietly taken 
possession of the breastworks which they had constructed. There was a 
grim humor about it which the men of the Twelfth Corps did not relish, 
and which put them on their mettle. 

Greene's brigade of Geary's division was holding the western slope of 
the hill ; Kane's and Candy's brigades stood next in line ; Ruger's division 
occupied the ground east to Rock Creek; Lockwood's brigade faced north, 
McDougall's north-west, Colgrove's west. 

East of the creek ISTeill's brigade of the Sixth Corps held the left of 
the line. In the rear of Geary were Shaler's and AVheaton's brigades of 
the Sixth Corps. 

General Ewell had no artillery in position to reply to the Union guns, 
and his troops, sheltered by the thick forest and the breastworks, suffered 
little from the cannonade. But an artillery fire long sustained is trying 
to tlie best-trained troops, though they have marched to victory under a 
leader like Stonewall Jackson. 

Colonel Colgrove's brigade formed in a grove between the turnpike 
and Rock Creek, the Twenty-seventh Indiana on the right ; then the Sec- 
ond Massachusetts. They were to charge across the marshy lowland and 
the brook which winds through it, to strike the left of the Confederate 
line. It was but a few rods ; five minutes would sufiice to carry them 
across the meadow. The signal was given, and they moved on. There 
came a volley. Men dropped, but the living went forward upon the run. 

Five minutes, and the remnant drifted back — broken, shattered. 

On a granite bowlder near the eastern edge of the meadow stands a 
tablet erected by the survivors of the Second Massachusetts. Thus it reads : 
" From the hill behind this monument, on the morning of July 3, 1863, 
the Second Massachusetts Infantry made an assault upon the Confederate 
troops in the works at the base of Cnlp's Hill, opposite. The regiment 
carried into the charge twenty-two officers and two hundred and ninety- 
four enlisted men. It lost four officers and forty-one enlisted men killed, 
and six officers and eighty-four enlisted men wounded." 

Back over the meadow they retreated, followed by the exultant Confed- 
ei-ates ; but they reformed amid the trees, faced about, and strewed the 
ground with Confederate dead by their deliberate volleys. 



262 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

Johnson was just readv to advance wlien Slocnm began the assault. 
Had tlie Union army waited a few minutes, the struggle would have been 
along the Baltimore pike, instead of in the woods and along the bowlders 
on Gulp's Hill. Johnson could not, from the nature of the ground, bring 
forward his artillery, and after the first cannonade by the Union batteries 
the battle was wholly by the infantry. 

From seven o'clock till eleven there was a ceaseless tempest, wholly in 
the woods, for the possession of the breastworks, men firing from behind 
trees and bowlders. The oaks were pitted with bullets. Ciradually the 
Confederates were pushed back, losing at last, in a charge by the Union 
troops, three stands of colors and five hundred prisoners, besides more than 
two thousand killed and wounded. At eleven o'clock the Union line was 
intact once more, holding the ground from Gulp's Hill to Geraetery Hill, 
and thence to the summit of Great Round Top, with breastworks nearly 
the entire distance. Throuo^h the nio^ht and mornino^ the soldiers had 
been at work with shovels and axes, and the line was stronger than ever. 

Lee has one division (Pickett's, of Longstreet's corps) which had taken 
no part in the battle. The troops had arrived from Chambersburg. They 
were eager to take part in the struggle. Anderson's division of Hill's 
corps was comparatively fresh, having taken but little part since the after- 
noon of the first day. With such a body, numbering about fifteen thou- 
sand men, he would strike the last great blow. 

The Union signal-officer on Round Top, looking westward over fields 
and groves, could see the Gonfederate troops gathering in the woods south 
of the seminary. He caught glimpses of batteries coming into position. 

The cemetery ridge south of Zeigler's Grove is lower than the ground 
by Codori's house. General Lee confidently believed that he could open 
fire with all his artillery upon the Union lines from an assaulting column 
in the woods west of Godori's house ; that when the Union line had been 
demoralized by the cannonade he could sweep the troops across the field 
west of the Emmettsburg road, hurl them like a thunder-bolt upon the 
Union troops south of Zeigler's Grove, divide Meade's line at the centre, 
folding the two halves back — one upon Little Round Top, the other upon 
Gulp's Hill — as he would open two folding-doors, thus winning the vic- 
tory — a single crushing blow. At the same moment he would have Stuart 
with the cavalry gain tlie rear of the Union army, east of Gulp's Hill, fall 
upon Meade's wagons, and make the rout complete. 

I was at Meade's headquarters when an officer came from Gemetery 
Hill with a message from General Howard that the Gonfederate cavalry 
could be seen moving eastward. The divisions of Union cavalry, Gregg's 



CEMETERY RIDGE. 263 

and Kilpatrick's, were by Rock Creek, near the Baltimore turnpike, water- 
ing their horses. It was past eleven o'clock when a messenger rode down 
with au order for Gregg to go out and meet Stuart, and for Kilpatrick to 
go south of Round Top and fall upon the extreme right of Longstreet. 

" Bugler, blow your horn ! Come on, boys !" said Kilpatrick. The 
clear notes of the cornet rang out, and Kilpatrick's division turned south. 
I joined General Gregg's division, which went upon a trot down the turn- 
pike a short distance, then north-east through the fields and pastures. We 
soon came in sight of the Confederate cavalry. 

Gregg had three regiments of Mcintosh's brigade, Costar's and Irvin 
Gregg's brigades, Randol's and Pennington's batteries — almost five thou- 
sand men. 

Stuart had Thompson's, W. H. F. Lee's, Fitz-Hugh Lee's, and Jenkins's 
brigades — nearly seven thousand. 

A road runs north from the Baltimore pike, and crosses the Bonnaugh- 
town road, and is known as the Low Dutch, or Salem Church road. The 
house of Mr. Reeves stands at the crossing. 

A portion of the Confederates had come down into the field, but after 
a few cannon-shot they fell back. Thinking that there might not be an 
immediate engagement, I rode to a large farm-house, where I found a 
woman and her four daughters hard at work baking bread for the soldiers. 
I was at the dinner-table when one of the daughters came in, exclaiming 
that the Confederates were coming. Stepping to the door, I saw a regi- 
ment wheeling into line in the field but a short distance from the monu- 
ment which now marks the scene of the confiict. My horse was eating 
his oats in the door-yard, and I had not finished my own dinner. The 
Confederates might be sweeping down upon the house, but I was a citi- 
zen, and they probably would not molest me. Besides, the Union cavalry 
were forming to confront them, so, standing upon the flank of both Union 
and Confederate, I saw the rush — the gleaming of sabres, the carbines' 
flashes, pistol-shots, horses leaping and plunging, riders going down, and 
the retreat of the Confederates to the field north of Mr. Rummel's house. 
For a time there was inaction ; Gregg was standing on the defensive. He 
was to keep Stuart from gaining the Baltimore turnpike. 

Thinking that there might not be any serious engagement, I left the 
cavalry and rode towards the cemetery once more, for a cannonade was 
going on, mingled with a rippling of musketry. West of the Emmetts- 
burg road, between Codori's house and the seminary, stood the farm-house 
of Mr. Bliss, who had a large barn, the lower story of which was of brick. 
The Confederate skirmishers had used it on the morning of the second, 



264 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

but had been driven out by the Twelfth K"ew Jersey ; but they were 
again in the barn, firing from the windows, picking off the Union troops. 
The batteries in the cemetery sent shells and solid shot into the building, 
but the Confederates crouched beneath the brick walls and still remained. 
The Fourteenth Connecticut, of Smyth's brigade, was detailed to drive 
them out. Eight companies went down through the field. Men began 
to drop. " Scatter and run !" was the order shouted by General Hays, 
commanding the division. The ranks divided and rushed on, and drove 
out the Confederates; but they rallied in the orchard, and others came 
to assist them. It was an engagement to see which should have posses- 
sion of the premises. General Hays determined to settle the matter. 
The Confederates saw an officer riding down from the Union line. The 
sharp-shooters aimed at him, bullets sang about his ears, but he kept 
straight on. 

" General Hays orders that you set tlie buildings on fire," he shouted 
to the ofiicer commanding the Connecticut men, then turned and rode 
back, the bullets spinning past him. He reached the crest of the ridge, 
raised his hat and saluted the Confederates, m4io, admiring his coolness 
and bravery, sent out a hearty cheer. It was Captain Postles, of the First 
Delaware. A moment later tlie fiames were rising from the house and 
barn, and adding another feature to the lurid scene. 

Indications pointed to a renewal of battle on the part of the Confed- 
erates, and every Union officer was on the alert — especially along the 
ridge between Zeigler's Grove and Little Round Top, the point where the 
attack was likely to be made. Eobinson's division of the First Corps was 
in the grove. Then came Hays's division of tlie Second Corps, the front 
line along a low stone wall, the second line east of the crest of the ridge. 
Beyond Hays's division was Gibbon's, behind a rail fence. The soldiers 
had taken down the rails, laid them in a pile, and through the forenoon 
had scooped a shallow trench, in which they were lying. A small copse 
of scrul)by oaks marked Mie position. Three regiments of Stannard's 
Vermont Brigade were in front of the main line, around a copse of trees 
and tangled vines. 

The troops selected by General Lee to make the attack, or to co-oper- 
ate in it, were Hill's corps and Pickett's division of Longstreet's— in all, 
twenty-one brigades, under the direction of Longstreet, that there might 
be united action under one commander. Pickett's, Anderson's, and Heth's 
divisions were to lead in the assault, to be supported by Pender's, Trim- 
ble's, and Rodes's divisions. To insure success the troops were to advance 
in a column or lines of brigades. On the right of the line in front was 



CEMETERY EIDGE. 265 

Kemper's brigade, witli Armistead in the second line ; then Garnet and 
Scales, Archer and Field, Lane and Pettigrew ; to be followed on the 
right by Wilcox and Perrj, in the centre by Wright, on the left by Posey 
and McGowan, Thomas's and Rodes's divisions of Ewell's corps. 

General Armistead was riding along his brigade, and came to the Fifty- 
third Virginia, and called out Kobert Tyler, the seventeen-year-old grand- 
son of President Tyler, who carried the colors. 

" Do you see those breastworks over yonder ?" he asked. 

" Yes, sir." 

" Well, I want you to plant that flag on them." 

" General, I will do it or die," said the boy.(^) 

Colonel Alexander through the morning had been arranging the Con- 
federate artillery. He had seventy-flve cannon at the peach orchard and 
vicinity, and along the woods behind Hill's troops sixty-three more — one 
hundred and thirty-eight — which were to fire directly upon the cemetery 
and the ridge south of it.(^) When the infantry brigades were all in posi- 
tion ready to advance. General Longstreet was to fire two cannon as the 
signal for the opening of the cannonade, which it was supposed would 
silence the Union artillery, and so demoralize the Union troops that Pick- 
ett and Anderson would sweep all before them. 

General Hunt, commanding the Union artillery, was arranging his bat- 
teries. This his account : 

" Compactly arranged on the crest of the ridge was McGilvery's 
artillery — forty-one guns. Well to the right, in front of Hays and Gib- 
bon, was the artillery of the Second Corps, under its chief. Captain Haz- 
ard. Woodruff's battery was in Zeigler's Grove ; on his left, in succession, 
Arnold's Rhode Island, Cushing's United States, Brown's Rhode Island, 
and Rorty's New York ; total number in the corps, twenty-six. Daniel's 
battery of horse artillery, four guns, was between McGilvery and Hazard. 
In addition, some of the guns on Cemetery Hill, and Ritfcenhouse's bat- 
tery, on Little Round Top, could be brought to bear ; but these were off- 
set by batteries similarly placed on the flanks of the enemy, so that in the 
Second Corps line, within the space of a mile, w^ere seventy-one guns to 
oppose nearly one hundred and fifty. They were on an open crest, plain- 
ly visible from all parts of the line." . , .{*) 

This the scene at eleven o'clock : 

" Our whole front for two miles was covered by (Confederate) bat- 
teries already in line or going into position. They stretched, apparently 
in one unbroken mass, from opposite the town to the peach orchard, 
which bounded the view to the left, the ridges of which were planted 



266 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

thick with cannon. Never before had such a sight been witnessed on 
this continent, and rarely, if ever, abroad. What did it mean ? It might 
possibly be to hold that line while its infantry was sent to aid Ewell, or 
to guard against a counter-stroke from us ; but it most probably meant an 
assault on our centre, to be preceded by a cannonade in order to crnsh our 
batteries and shake our infantry — at least to cause us to exhaust our 
ammunition in reply, so that the assaulting troops might pass in good con- 
dition over the half-mile of open ground which was beyond our effective 
musketry fire." 

General Hunt believed that it was to be a direct assault by a body of 
troops concealed in the woods south of the seminary, and made arrange- 
ments to meet it. These his instructions : 

" Beginning at the right, I instructed the chiefs of artillery and battery 
commanders to withhold their fire for fifteen or twenty minutes after the 
cannonade commenced, then to concentrate their fire, with all possible 
accuracy, on those batteries which were most destructive to us, but slowly, 
so that when the enemy's ammunition was exhausted, we should have 
sufficient left to meet the assault." 

Neither General Hunt nor General Meade issued any orders to tlie 
Union artillery to prevent the Confederate artillery from coming into 
position. " The enemy, conscious of the strength of his position, simply 
sat still and waited for us," writes Colonel Alexander, of the Confederate 
artillery. 

General Longstreet did not approve of the contemplated attack, and 
was greatly depressed in spirits. (^) His troops \^»ere to make what he 
believed to be a hopeless charge ; that they would be sacrificed with noth- 
ing gained, and that he would be obliged to issue the order. He could 
not do it, and at noon sent this note to Colonel Alexander : 

" Colonel, — If the artillery fire does not have the effect to drive off 
the enemy or greatly demoralize him, so as to make our efforts pretty 
certain, I would prefer that you should not advise General Pickett to 
make the charge. I shall rely greatly on your good judgment to deter- 
mine the matter, and shall expect you to let General Pickett know when 
the moment offers," 

It was a startling note, and Colonel Alexander, who shrank from taking 
such a responsibility, sent this reply : 

" I w^ill not be able to judge of the effect of our fire on the enemy 
except by his return fire, for his infantry is but little exposed to view, and 
the smoke will obscure the whole field. If, as I infer from your note, 
there is any alternative to this attack, it should be carefully considered 



CEMETERY RIDGE. 269 

before opening our fire, for it will take all the artillery ammunition we 
have left to test this one thoroughly, and if tlie result is unfavorable we 
will have none left for another effort. And even if this is entirely success- 
ful, it can only be so at a very bloody cost." 

Colonel Alexander a few moments later received a reply from Lono-- 
street : 

" The intention is to advance the infantry if the artillery has the 
desired effect of driving the enemy's off, or having other effect such as to 
warrant us in making the attack. When the moment ari'ives, advise Gen- 
eral Pickett, and of course advance such artillery as you can use in aiding 
the attack." 

General Wright, who was in the attack on the evening of the second, 
was with Colonel Alexander, and read the notes. 

"It is not so hard to go there as it looks; I was nearly there with my 
brigade yesterday. The trouble is to stay there. The whole Yankee 
army is there in a bunch. "Q 

Colonel Alexander rode to General Pickett, and found that he was 
sanguine as to the result. He and his troops were in the best of spirits. 
They had been resting after their march of the morning. They had 
heard of the success of Hill's and Ewell's troops on the first day, and how 
Longstreet and McLaws had driven the Union troops from the peach 
orchard and the Emmettsburg road, and it was left for them, with the 
aid of Hill's troops, to complete the victory, and win the great decisive 
battle which would give the Confederacy a place among the nations. Not 
a man doubted it. General Pickett was so certain as to what the result 
would be that Colonel Alexander determined there should be no indeci- 
sion on his part. This the note which he sent to Longstreet : " When 
our artillery fire is at its best, I shall order Pickett to charge." 

I had nearly reached Meade's headquarters from the position occupied 
by the cavalry, when I heard two cannon — the guns agreed upon as the 
signal on the part of the Confederate artillery. My watch, set to Wash- 
ington time, pointed to five minutes past one. 

The guns were fired by Lieutenant Brown's section of the First Com- 
pany of Washington Artillery.Q Instantly from below the peach orchard, 
northward to the Theological Seminary, from Benner's Hill, north-east of 
Gettysburg, not only from the one hundred and thirty-eight cannon which 
Alexander had arranged, but from Ewell's guns, more than one hundred 
and fifty in all, came solid shot and shells. The air seemed to be full of 
missiles. A moment later there came a crash from the Union artillery — 
all the batteries — those on Little Round Top, along the ridge, in the ceme- 



270 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

terj, round to tlie Avestern slope of Gulp's Hill. The instructions of Gen- 
eral Hunt were for tlie batteries to wait a little while before replying, but 
flesh and blood could not wait. ]^or can I see that anything would have 
been gained by waiting. The Confederate fire from the outset was de- 
structive, and equally damaging was that of the Union cannon. This the 
record of Colonel Alexander : 

"In a minute every gun was at work. The enemy were not slow in 
coming back on us, and the grand roar of nearly the whole artillery of 
both armies burst in on the silence almost as suddenly as the full notes 
of an organ could fill a church. . . . The enemy's position seemed to have 
broken out with guns everywhere, and from Round Top to Cemetery Hill 
was blazing like a volcano. The air seemed full of missiles from every 
direction." 

A Confederate shell exploding in the cemetery killed or wounded 
twenty-seven men. General Meade's headquarters were directly in the 
line of fire from the one hundred and thirty-eight Confederate cannon. 
Solid shot tore through the house. Shells exploded in the door-yard, 
wounding horses, cutting down the peach-trees, ripping ojjen bags of oats, 
sending General Meade, his staff, and the newspaper correspondents for 
shelter elsewhere— General Meade into the woods eastward, where his 
headquarters flag was stuck in the ground beside a huge bowlder. Not that 
General Meade attempted to screen himself or staff, but to prudently find 
a place less exposed than the cottage of Mrs. Leister, whose roof could be 
plainly seen by the Confederates at the peach orchard. One hundred mis- 
siles a miimte swept across the ridge, crashing through baggage-wagons, 
ambulances, exploding caissons, and adding confusion and horror to the 
scene. 

A soldier lying on the ground not far from me is suddenly whirled into 
the air. I hear the whir of the approaching shell ; the next moment the 
living form is a mass of mangled flesh, broken bones, and streaming blood. 

For nearly an hour the terrible storm howls and rages, and then there 
comes a sudden silence on the part of the Union guns. 

General Hunt, comprehending the intention of Lee that the cannonade 
was to be followed by an advance, wishing to have a supply af ammuni- 
tion at the decisive moment, directed the batteries to cease firing. The 
gunners throw themselves upon the ground beside their pieces. 

General Longstreet was with General Pickett. A courier came with 
a note from Colonel Alexander to Pickett, written five minutes before the 
Union artillery ceased: 

" If you are coming at all you must come at once, or I cannot give yon 



CEMETERY KIDGE. 271 

proper support ; but the enemy's fire has not slackened at all — at least 
eighteen guns are still firing from the cemetery itself,"(*) read the note. 
Five minutes passed, and the brazen lips of all the Union cannon were 
silent, and the guns in the cemetery limbered up and disappeared. 

"If lie does not run up fresh batteries in five minutes this is our fight," 
says Colonel Alexander, who is looking through his glass towards the 
cemetery, where he can see the ground thickly strewn with dead horses 
and men. The five minutes pass ; no batteries come to take tlie place of 
those which had disappeared. The Confederate artillery has not ceased, 
but the cannon are firing with greater vigor, now that no answering shot 
comes from the cemetery ridge. 

Colonel Alexander does not know that Major Osborne, commanding 
the Union guns in the cemetery, is only biding his time ; that his batteries 
are resting behind the cemetery ; that in a twinkling they will be flaming 
again. He does not mistrust that General Hunt has anticipated just what 
the Confederate movement is to be ; that the temj)est will be more terrific 
than ever when the time comes for action. 

Colonel Alexander shuts his glass, and writes once more : 

" For God's sake come quick. The eighteen minutes are gone ; come 
quick, or my ammunition won't let me support you properly." 

The messenger hands it to Pickett, who reads it and passes.it to Long- 
street. 

" Shall I advance ?"(') 

No word in reply ; only a bow from Longstreet, as he mounts his horse. 

" I shall lead my division forward, sir." 

Longstreet makes no reply, but rides away. 

This the scene of the moment, as given by a Confederate : 

" While Longstreet was still speaking, Pickett's division swept out of 
the wood, and showed the full length of its gray ranks and shining bay- 
onets, as grand a sight as ever man looked on. Joining it on the left, Pet- 
tigrew stretched farther than I could see. Gen. Dick Garnett, just out 
of a sick-ambulance, and buttoned up in an old blue overcoat, riding at the 
head of his brigade, passed ns and saluted Longstreet. "('") 

At the moment, I was near the cemetery and heard a chorus of voices 
saying, " There they come !" Up from the ground sprang the cannoneers, 
Avho ran their guns forward into position and began to fire. At the same 
moment the cannon on Little Round Top broke the silence. The Union 
cannon along the ridge were still dumb. Their time had not come. The 
Confederate cannon ceased, to enable the infantry to advance, but after- 
the troops had moved on, renewed their fire. 



272 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

Up in the cemetery, General Howard, watching the advancing Confed- 
erates, turned to Major Osborne, commanding the artillery, and said, " The 
Second Corps and the artillery will take care of the assaulting column ; 
concentrate your fire upon their supports ;"(") and the cemetery cannon 
opened a destructive enfilading fire ujDon the troops which General Lee 
intended should drive home the w^edge which Pickett, Anderson, and 
Heth were to insert in the Union line. 

The front line of the Confederates reaches the Emmettsburg road, the 
Union pickets falling back, to be out of the line of fire which they know- 
will soon open. Tliere is an ominous silence along Cemetery Ridge. Says 
Hancock in his account: " The column pressed on, coming within musket- 
ry range, our men evincing a striking disposition to w^ithhold their fire 
until it could be delivered with deadly effect." 

The Confederates are crossing the road north of Codori's house, when 
the cannon on the ridge open upon them. They descend the gentle slope, 
and then comes the first roll of musketry from the two Vermont regi- 
ments thrown out in front of the main line, sending an oblique fire upon 
Kemper, who moves on to strike the Second Corps. The Confederates 
are between the road and the low stone wall behind which Gibbon's and 
Hays's troops are lying, when the first hot blast from the front bursts 
upon them. They come to a halt and return the fire — loading, firing, 
again advancing. Garnett falls dead ; Kemper goes down wounded ; 
Armistead, gray-haired — the only general officer of the division after 
Pickett — waves his sword. "Come on, boys !" he shouts, and they rush 
on towards the wall — he to fall mortally wounded. ('^) 

The supporting brigades on the left at this moment were coming 
within canister range, and the double-shotted cannon in the cemetery were 
cutting them to pieces, the howitzers firing twice in sixty seconds — a 
death-tem]3est so pitiless that the brigades melted away as the snow-flake 
in the running stream, the regiments breaking and disappearing. Ofiicers 
tried to rally them, but in vain. "Pickett galloped down and implored 
them to rally, but they were panic-stricken, and no effort could induce 
them to form anew while under that terrific storm of fire," writes a Con- 
federate officer. (") 

Note to Second Day's Engagement. 

1. Sherfy's liouse and peach orchard. 

2. Position of Fifth and Ninth Massachusetts batteries. 

3. Trostle's house. 

4. Wheat-field, and riglit of Ward's brigade. 

5. Peter Rogers's house. 

6. Codori's house and barn. Humphreys's division extended from this point along the 
Emmettsburg road, past Rogers's house. 




18 



CEMETERY KIDGE. 



275 



7. Cemeteiy Hill. 

8. Where McGilvery massed his guns. The line selected bj^ General Sickles extended 
from Codori's south to Sherfy's orchard, figure 1 ; then to figure 3, where it crossed the 
i-oad. Burliug's brigade in part occupied the wood to the left of figure 2; Winslow's bat- 
tery w-as at figure 4; Ward's brigade extended through the woods to the left, to the Devil's 
Den, not seen in the view. On the Union side, Birney's division of the Third Corps, the 
Fifth Corps, and Caldwell's division of the Second Corps, fought to the left of figures 2-4. 

On the Confederate side were Hood's and McLaws's divisions of Lougstreet's corps. 
Hood's movement was to gain Little Round Top. The retreat of the Union troops was 
across the ground between Little Round Top and Trostle's house, back to figure 8. Ker- 
shaw's Confederate brigade advanced through the woods to the left of figure 3; Barks- 
dale advanced between figures 3 and 5; Wilcox's and the other brigades of Hill's corps, 
under figure 6. 

Willard's brigade of the Second Corps and the First Minnesota Regiment advanced from 
the position between figures 7 and 8, drove the Confederates to figure 6, and recaptured 
the Union cannon left in the retreat. 



Note to Third Day's Engagement. 

The Union line extended from Little Round Top to figure 7. Stannard's brigade was 
in advance of the main line, at figure 9; the advance of Pickett and Anderson was from 
figures 1, 3, 5, and 6, across 
the open field between figures 
5 and 6; Pickett crossed the 
road between figures 6 and 7; 
Wilcox, who was in the rear 
of Pickett, crossed the road 
between figures 5 and 6. The 
third Confederate line was in 
the open field between figures 
5 and 6, and was cut to pieces 
by the cannon on Little Round 
Top and those on Cemetery 
Hill, figure 7. 

When Pickett reached the 
stone wall between figures 7 
and 8, Stannard's brigade at 
figure 9 made its flank move- 
ment northward towards fig- 
ure 7, the farthest point 
reached by the Confederates. 

10 is Culp's Hill, the ex-- 
treme left of the Union line. 




^^ h© ©^ FARNSWOBTH 



rOSITIOX OF TROOPS THIRD DAY AT GETTYSBURG. 



The brigades of Pick- 
ett are up to the stone 
wall, pouring their vol- 
leys into the faces of the 
Sixty-ninth and Seven- 
ty-first Pennsylvania of Webb's brigade, which are pushed back by Armi- 
stead's men, Robert Tyler, true to his promise, planting his colors on the 
•wall. All of the guards are killed, the colors are shot to pieces. A bullet 



276 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

tears tliroiigli Tyler's shoulder, and he and the flag go down together. 
He tries to rise, but a second bullet inflicts a mortal wound.('^) 

The Confederates rush up to the muzzles of Cushing's cannon. Gushing 
fires his last shot and falls dead beside his guns. There is a desperate strug- 
gle — the bayonet-thrust, pistol-shot, clubbing of muskets, men summoning 
all their strength into a supreme effort. Hancock is everywhere along the 
line.('^) " Strike them in flank !" he shouts to Stannard ; and the Yermont- 
ers make a half-wheel to the right, march north, and deliver their volleys. 

" Where shall we go in ?" Colonel Devereux, of the Nineteenth Massa- 
chusetts, of Hall's brigade, in the second line, puts the question. " There !" 
Hancock points to the gap by Cnshing's guns, and the regiments of the 
brigade rush forward to throw themselves into the breach. ("') 

From right and left the brigades of the Second Corps press in. The 
two Pennsylvania regiments, which were pushed from the wall, have not 
fled, but have rallied behind the crest. Smyth's brigade is confronting 
Pettigrew, while Harrow's brigade comes from the left, and tlie Eighth 
Ohio, which has been on the picket line, closes in upon his flank. In the 
melee, uproar, confusion, and carnage, amid the roar of cannon, rolls of 
musketry, explosion of shells, whirring of canister and musket-balls, amid 
yells and oaths and curses, brave deeds are done by Confederate and Union 
alike. There is an utter disregard of life — men in blue and men in gray 
are animated by one thought only — to conquer. 

Fifteen minutes ! it seems an hour. When General Pickett looks 
round for his supports they are not there to fold back the door which he 
has opened, and which has already closed again. The cannon of the ceme- 
tery have decimated the supporting brigades on the left, while Wilcox 
and Perry, who were to have come up on the right, are just starting from 
their positions west of the Emmettsburg road, not to follow up his attack, 
but through some misdirection to make an independent and futile move- 
ment south of Codori's house. 

The Confederates along the stone wall see that no help is at hand, 
that to attempt to retreat will be almost certain death, and four thousand 
flve hundred throw down their arms and rush into the Union lines, while 
those farther out upon the fleld seek safety in flight. Then from Little 
Round Top to Cemetery Hill rises a mighty chorus of voices shouting the 
psean of victory. 

Says Longstreet, " When the smoke cleared away, Pickett's division 
was gone. Nearly tM'o-thirds of his men lay dead on the field, and the sur- 
vivors were sullenly retreating down the hill. In a half hour the con- 
tested field was cleared, and the battle of Gettysburg was over."(") 



CEMETERY RIDGE. 277 

It "was a feeble movement made bj Wilcox and Perry — repulsed easily 
by McGilvery's guns — not made till too late to have any effect, for the bat- 
tle had already been decided. 

Lieutenant-colonel Freemantle, of the British Army, was riding at the 
moment tlirough the woods to Longstreet's position. This his account : 

"When I got close up to General Longstreet, I saw one of his regi- 
ments advancing througli the woods in good order ; so, thinking I was 
just in time to see the attack, I remarked to the general that ' I wouldn't 
have missed this for anything.' Longstreet was seated on the top of a 
snake - fence, in the edge of the wood, and looking perfectly calm and 
unperturbed. He replied, ' The devil you wouldn't ! I would like to 
have missed it very much ; we've attacked and been repulsed. Look 
there !' 

" For the first time I then had a view of the open space between the 
two positions, and saw it covered with Confederates slowly and sulkily re- 
turning towards us in small broken parties. . . . 

"• I remember seeing a general (Pettigrew, I think it was) come up to 
him and report that he was unable to bring his men up again. Longstreet 
turned upon him and replied with some sarcasm, ' Yery well, never mind, 
then, general ; just let them remain where they are. The enemy is going 
to advance, and will spare you the trouble.'. . . 

"Soon afterwards I joined General Lee, who had in the mean while 
come to the front, on becoming aware of the disaster. He was engaged in 
rallying and in encouraging the troops. . . . He was addressing- to every 
soldier he met a few words of encouragement, such as, ' All this will come 
right in the end ; we will talk it over afterwards, but in the mean time all 
good men must rally. We want all good men and true men just now,' 
etc. . . . He said to me, ' This has been a sad day for us, colonel, a sad 
day; but we can't expect always to gain victories.' ... I saw General Wil- 
cox (an officer who wears a short round jacket and a battered straw 
hat) come up to him, and explain, almost crying, the state of his bri- 
gade. General Lee immediately shook hands with him, and said, cheer- 
fully, 'Never mind, general. All this has been my fault — it is I that 
have lost this light, and you must help me out of it in the best way you 
can.' "('«) 

The conflict had ceased in Codori's fields, but south of Kound Top and 
out on Rummel's farm the cavalry were still engaged. The cavalry south 
of Round Top advanced resolutely, with two objects in view — the capture 
of some of Longstreet's trains, and a diversion which would prevent Long- 
street from advancing once more against Little Round Top. Merritt's bri- 



278 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



gade deployed on tlie left, and attacked G. B. Anderson's Georgia Brigade, 
supported by two batteries. Farnsworth's brigade deployed on the right, 
next to Round Top, charged upon Backraan's battery, and came near capt- 
uring it ; but the Ninth Georgia Regiment, behind a stone wall, fired a vol- 
ley by which Farns worth was mortally wounded and his troops repulsed 
with much loss. It was cavalry attacking infantry, with the advantage pret- 
ty much on the side of the Confederates. 

I had supposed the cavalry engagement ended when I rode back from 
the vicinity of Rummel's farm at one o'clock, but the great engagement 

between Stuart and Greo^o- did not 
begin till near the close of tlie can- 
nonade preceding Pickett's charge. 
Stuart had placed himself in posi- 
tion to make the rout of the Union 
army comjDlete, which it was con- 
fidentlv believed would be inauo^u- 
rated by the assault of Hill's and 
Pickett's troops. 

It was two o'clock when the First 
New Jersey Regiment advanced 
northward across a level field tow- 
ards Mr. Rummel's house, to dis- 
cover if any Confederates were in 
that direction, when out from Rum- 
mel's barn swarmed a strong body 
of dismounted Confederates, and 
the carbines began to rattle. A 
Confederate battery came galloi^ing 
to the edge of the woods at the top 
of the hill north of Rummel's house, sending its shells across the field. 
Randol's Union battery replied. 

There was brave fighting between men of the North and men of 
the South, Gregg holding his chosen ground and warding off every effort 
of Stuart. Union and Confederate alike could look across the interven- 
ing woodlands and see Cemetery Hill, Little Round Top, and the connect- 
ing ridge enveloped in smoke. They heard the rolls of musketry, and 
then the dying away of the battle. There was no rout of troops — no men 
in blue fleeing panic-stricken down the Baltimore turnpike. Possibly it 
nerved Stuart, and especially Hampton, to do something, if possible, to 
retrieve the waning fortune of the hour, for the charge of Hampton's 




CAVALRY ENGAGEMENT — THIRD DAY. 



CEMETERY KIDGE. 279 

brigade was bold and furious ; but it was met and resisted. The sun was 
going down. The last blow had been struck, the Confederate troops fell 
back, and silence settled over all the scene. The battle of Gettysburg had 
been fought and lost by General Lee. More than twenty thousand Con- 
federates had been killed, wounded, or taken as prisoners. The Union 
army had lost nearly as many. 

Although the troops under Pickett had reached the ridge at one point, 
the entire Sixth Corps of the Union army, which had taken no part in the 
contest, together with the Third and Fifth corps, were in position to fall 
upon them ; and the supports which General Lee had arranged, even if 
the brigades had advanced with Pickett, would have been cut to pieces. 
Longstreet, from his observation during the second day's engagement, had 
best comprehended the situation, and correctly judged that the movement 
would result in disaster. 

It was a night of gloom and despondency in the Confederate army. 
During the three days' engagements nearly every regiment had taken part 
— the losses had been frightful. The Union array, which had been re- 
garded with contempt, had defeated them. The confident expectation of 
victory which had inspired them all the way from Fredericksburg had 
suddenly given place to a consciousness that the great battle which they 
had counted on as a crowning victory had resulted in defeat. " These 
considerations made it to us one of those solemn and awful nights that 
any one who fought through our long war sometimes experienced before 
a great battle," are the words of a Confederate general.('°) The soldiers 
of both armies expected that with the rising sun the conflict would be 
renewed. 

General Lee throiigh the evening was turning over once more, as he 
never before had turned it, the great question of what to do. Fight an- 
other battle ? Impossible ; his ammunition was nearly gone. He must 
return to Virginia. With his large comprehension, in that hour of gloom 
it is not unlikely he saw that Gettysburg was the beginning of the end 
of the Confederacy. He was in consultation with A. P. Hill, examining 
maps by the flickering light of a candle. At one o'clock in the morning 
he came riding slowly to his own tent. 

A Confederate officer, who had been directed to wait for him, has pict- 
ured the scene : 

" There was not even a sentinel on duty, and no one of his staff was 
about. The moon was high in the heavens, shedding a flood of soft silvery 
light, almost as bright as day, upon the scene. When lie approached and 
saw us, he spoke, reined in his horse, and essayed to dismount. The effort 



280 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

to do SO betrayed so much physical exhaustion that I stepped forward to 
assist him, but before I I'eached him he had alighted. He threw his arm 
across the saddle to rest himself, and fixing his eyes upon the ground, 
leaned in silence upon his equally wearj'^ horse. The moon shone fully 
upon his massive features, and revealed an expression of sadness I had 
never seen upon that fine countenance before in any of the vicissitudes 
of the war through which he had passed. . . . 

" ' General, this has been a hard day on you.' 

" This attracted his attention. He looked up, and replied, mournfully, 

" ' Yes, it has been a sad, sad day to us,' and immediately relapsed into 
his thoughtful mood and attitude. After a niiimte or two he suddenly 
straightened up to his full height, and turning to me with more animation, 
energy, and excitement of manner than I liad ever seen in him before, 
addressed me in a voice tremulous with emotion, and said, 

" ' General, I never saw troops behave more magnificently than Pickett's 
division of Virginians did to-day in their grand charge. And if they had 
been supported, as they were to have been, but for some reason not yet 
fully explained to me they were not, we would have held the position 
they so gloriously won at such a fearful loss of noble lives, and the day 
would have been ours.' After a moment he added, in a tone almost of 
agony, ' Too bad ! Too lad ! Too bad !' "C") 

While yet the Confederates of Pickett's division who threw down 
their arms were rushing into the Union lines, I went down to the scene 
of the final conflict. Men in blue and men in gray, who had fired their 
muskets into one another's faces — so near that the powder had burned 
their clothing — were lying under the muzzles of Cnshing's guns. The field 
between the stone wall and Codori's was very thickly strewn with prostrate 
forms — the dead of the second day's engagement, together with those that 
had gone down in the strife just ended. The wounded were calling for 
help, and already the hospital corps was upon the field, bringing Union 
and Confederate alike to the surgeons. Measure off a half mile in width, 
from Codori's to the crest of the ridge, extend the line south one mile to 
Rose's house and the wheat-field, and you have a plot of ground on which, 
during the second and third day's engagement, more than fifteen thousand 
men were killed or wounded. Through the evening I surveyed the scene, 
walked amid the dead, beholding their faces in the moonlight — forms 
motionless evermore, life gone out. I thought of desolate homes North 
and South ; of wife, mother, sister, or aged father, who would listen for 
footsteps which never would again be heard. Why such carnage of 
human life? Not personal hate; not obedience to autocrat or king, but 



CEMETEEY KIDGE. 281 

the conflict between liberty and slavery, two eternally antagonistic, irrec- 
oncilable forms of society. Standing there, the conviction came that the 
slave power had wielded its mightiest blow ; that when the remnants of 
Pickett's brigades drifted back across Codori's fields, it was the beginning 
of the ebb tide of the Confederacy. 

It was nearly midnight when I rode up to General Meade's headquar- 
ters, in a grove east of the Taneytown road. General Meade was sitting 
on a great flat bowlder, listening to reports brought in by couriers. It 
was a scene which lives in memory. The evening breeze was gently rus- 
tling the green leaves over our heads, the katydids were singing cheerily. 
Around were bivouac -fires, where soldiers were sitting, talking of the 
events of the day, and pointing to the trees shattered by cannon-shot. 
Corps commanders were there, Howard, Sykes, Sedgwick, Pleasonton of 
the cavalry. Hunt of the artillery. General Meade had laid aside his 
slouched felt hat, that the breeze might fan his brow. 

" Order up rations and ammunition," he said to his chief of staff. 

"Let your limbers and caissons be refilled. Lee may be up to some- 
thing in the morning, and we must be ready for him," his words to Gen- 
eral Hunt. 

A band near by struck up " Hail to the Chief," "Star Spangled Ban- 
ner," and " Yankee Doodle." The soldiers listened and responded with a 
cheer. 

The morning of July 4th dawned — anniversary of the Declaration of 
the Indejoendence of the United States — the birth of the nation. From 
Cemetery Hill I could see with my glass the white canvas tops of army 
wagons and ambulances far away in the south-west moving towards the 
mountains. Were the Confederates retreating, or was it only the removal 
of the wounded ? The Confederate pickets were still along the fields 
west of the Emmettsburg road, exchanging shots with the Union videttes. 
The day passed with no aggressive movement by either army. Lee was 
improving the time sending his trains southward. Another day, and he 
had disappeared and was making his way to the Potomac. The Union 
army could not follow hiin with much hope of success, for in the mount- 
ain-passes a brigade could hold a division at bay. General Meade lingered 
at Gettysburg when he should have been on the march. The cavalry 
under Kilpatrick and Gregg crossed the mountains, reached Hagerstown 
and Williamsport in advance of Stuart, fell upon a wagon-train, captured 
several hundred prisoners, and burned the train. The pontoons which Lee 
had left at Falling Waters had been destroyed on the second day of the 
battle by some Union cavalry sent by General French. Rain was falling. 



282 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

and tlie Potomac rising. Troops were hastening from all quarters to 
make good the losses of the battle. The Union army marched cautiously. 
General Meade was undecided as to what he ought to do. General Lee 
reached the Potomac, where he received a supply of ammunition. His 
provisions were running low. He threw up intrenchments, collected canal- 
boats, tore down houses, reconstructed a pontoon-bridge, and when Meade, 
after much unaccountable delay, was ready to attack, the Confederate 
army was once more in Virginia, with the exception of Pettigrew's bri- 
o-ade, which Kilpatrick overtook at Falling Waters, the cavalrymen charg- 
ino- up a hill, with two cannon hurling canister in their faces, with muskets 
flashing, horses and men going down, but the men of Michigan in the sad- 
dle closed around the Confederates, cut off their retreat, and captured 
nearly nine hundred prisoners. 

The invasion of the ISTorth was over ; the great battle which was to 
bring about the independence of the Confederacy, its recognition as a 
nation by France and England, had been fought and lost. 



NOTES TO CHAPTER XIII. 

( ') General Lougstreet, "Annals of the War," p. 427. 

( ^) Captain Harwood, "Virginia Fifty- third." 

( 3) Colonel Alexander, Century Magazine, January, 1887. 

( ^) General Hunt, Century Magazine, January, 1887. 

( 5) General Longstreet, " Annals of the War," p. 431. 

( «) Colonel Alexander, Century Magazine, January, 1887. 

( ') Captain Owen, "In Camp and Battle," p. 253. 

( 8) Colonel Alexander, Century Magazine, January, 1887. 

( ') General Longstreet, " Annals of the War," p. 430. 

(10) Colonel Alexander, Century Magazine, January, 1887. 

('1) General Howard and Major Osborn to author. 

(12) Captain Harwood, "Virginia Fifty-third." 

(13) Captain Owen, "In Camp and Battle," p. 251. 

(14) Captain Harwood, "Virginia Fifty- third." 

(15) General Stannard to author. 
(1^) Hancock's account. 

(") General Longstreet, "Annals of the War," p. 431. 
(i«) Blackicood's Magazine, September, 1863. 
(") General Imboden, Galaxy Magazine, April, 1871. 
(•^») Idem. 



THE OLD FLAG ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



283 



CHAPTER XIY. 



THE OLD FLAG OX THE MISSISSIPPL 



NEVER had there been such a night in Vicksbnrg as that of Sunday, 
May ITth, when the Confederate troops, commanded by Pemberton, 
came into the city after their defeat at Champion Hills and Big Black 
River. A woman who was in the city through the siege that followed 
wrote this in her diary : 

'■'■May 17th. — Hardly was our scanty breakfast over this morning when 
a hurried ring brought us to tlie door, and there stood in high excite- 



is. 







PEMBERTON S HEADQUARTERS, VICKSBURG. 



ment. ' Well, they are upon us ; the Yankees will be here this evening.' 
' What do you mean V ' That Pemberton has been whipped at Baker's 
Creek and Big Black, and his army is running back here as fast as they 
can come, and the Yanks are after them in such numbers that nothing can 
stop them. Hasn't Pemberton acted like a fool?' 'He may not be the 
only one to blame.' ' I hear you can't see the armies for the dust ; never 
was anything known like it.' About three o'clock the rush began. I 



284 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

shall never forget that woful sight of a beaten, demoralized armj that 
came rushing back — humanity in the last throes of endurance. Wan, 
hollow-eyed, ragged, foot-sore, bloody, the men limped along, unarmed, but 
followed by siege-guns, ambulances, gun-carriages, and wagons in aimless 
confusion. "(') 

" Many of the troops," says a Confederate writer in Yicksburg, " de- 
clared their willingness to desert rather than serve under him [Pember- 
ton] again. The stillness of the Sabbath night was broken in upon, and 
an u23roar in which the blasphemous oaths of the soldier and the cry of 
the child mingled formed a scene which the pen cannot depict, and which 
can never be forgotten. There were many gentlewomen and tender chil- 
dren torn from their homes by the advance of a ruthless foe, and com- 
pelled to fly to our lines for protection ; and mixed up with them in one 
vast crowd were the gallant men who had left Yicksburg three short 
weeks before in all the pride and confidence of a just cause, and returning 
to it a demoralized mob and a defeated army, all caused by one man's iu- 
competency."(") 

Through the night the Confederate troops marched in, weary and dis- 
lieartened, but the officers rallied and reorganized them ; stragglers returned 
to their regiments, and by Monday afternoon they were in position behind 
the breastworks, working with picks, spades, and axes. The regiments 
which had been stationed at Snyder's Bluff and Chickasaw Bayou has- 
tened to the city, abandoning fourteen cannon and a large amount of 
stores which could not be removed. 

During the two weeks that had passed since Pemberton marched out 
from Yicksburg he had lost Boring's division, eight thousand seven hun- 
dred, besides eight thousand killed and wounded or taken prisoners. All 
told, he had lost over sixteen thousand. He had still nearly thirty-three 
thousand men, but fully ten thousand were too demoralized to be of much 
service. 

On the morning of the ITth a courier from Pembei'ton made his way 
to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, who was thirty miles north-east of Yicks- 
burg, carrying a letter giving information of the defeat of the Confeder- 
ates at Champion Hills and Big Black River. This was Johnston's reply : 

" If you are invested in Yicksburg you must ultimately surrender. 
Under such circumstances, instead of losing both troops and place, we 
must, if possible, save the troops. H it is not too late, evacuate Yicks- 
burg and its dependencies, and march to the north-east." 

The courier hastened back with the letter, delivering it to General 
Pemberton Monday noon, who was astonished at such an order. " Give 



THE OLD FLAG ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 285 

iipYicksburg! Never!" he said. "The evacuation of Yicksburg ! It 
meant the loss of the valuable stores and munitions of war collected for 
its defence, the fall of Port Hudson, the surrender of the Mississippi 
River, and the severance of the Confederacy. These were mighty in- 
terests which, had I deemed the evacuation practicable in the sense in 
which I interpreted General Johnston's instructions, might well make me 
hesitate to execute them." 

He called his generals together for consultation. What should be done 
was the momentous question. It was impossible to withdraw the army from 
that position with such morale and material as to be of further service to 
the Confederacy, they said. It was too late to withdraw. While the gen- 
erals were discussing the question the deep booming of the cannonade fell 
upon their ears. Sherman, holding the right wing of Grant's army, was 
closing the roads leading north-east, and his troops were pushing on tow- 
ards Haines's Bluif, on the Yazoo. 

" I intend to hold Yicksburg to the last. I conceive it to be the most 
imj^ortant point in the Confederacy," was the reply which Pemberton sent 
to Johnston. 

Yicksburg was important to the Confederate Government, because if 
it were surrendered the States west of the Mississippi would be severed 
from those east of it. It was important also because from the western 
bank of the river a railroad extended west into Arkansas. Grant's move- 
ment had cut off all communication westward, but it might be reopened if 
the Union army could be repulsed. For the cause of the Union it was 
im]3ortant that Yicksburg should be taken, because the Mississippi was 
Nature's great highway to the sea. At the beginning of the war, John A. 
Logan, of Illinois, had voiced the sentiment of the people of that section. 
" The men of the North-west will hew their way to the Gulf of Mexico," 
and he was there, with the thousands composing the army, to carry out 
that resolution. 

Beginning north of the city, wb see the Confederate brigades of 
Shoup, Baldwin, Yaughn, and Buford; then General Forney's division — 
Moore's and Hebert's brigades ; then Stevenson's division — Barton's, Cum- 
mings's, Lee's, and Reynolds's brigades, the last on the right of Pember- 
ton's line below the city. Bowen's division — Green's and Cochran's bri- 
gades — in reserve. The cavalry, under General Waul, was dismounted 
and attached to Stevenson's division. 

There were one hundred and twenty-eight cannon behind the intrench- 
ments, placed in position to sweep every approach ; thirty-six heavy siege- 
guns, besides forty-four in the batteries along the river. 



286 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



Eighteen days only had passed since the Union army crossed the Mis- 
sissippi at Grand Gulf. Daring the time, the troops had marched two 
hundred miles, defeated the Confederates at Port Gibson, Raymond, Jack- 
son, Champion Hills, and Big Black, capturing eighty-eight cannon, in- 
flicting great losses upon Pemberton. They had only five days' rations, 
but had picked up what food they could find in the country. It was a 
great risk which General Grant took to cut himself loose from all sup- 
plies. But he had faith in his men, and, best of all, faith in himself. 



V,^ GRANT'Sb 

HD. QRS. I 




MAP OF THE SIEGE OF VICKSBURG. 



With what energy he pushed on ! The battle of Big Black was fought 
on Sunday morning. It was over by nine o'clock, the Confederate troops 
fleeing west to Yicksburg, twelve miles. 

General Grant had only one pontoon train, and Sherman was using it. 
He reached the Big Black at two o'clock Tuesday afternoon, and at sun- 
set was ready to cross. 

General McPherson set his soldiers to tearing down a cotton-gin and 



THE OLD FLAG ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 289 

felling trees. Through the afternoon there was a clattering of axes, men 
lifting timber, building cribs in the river, filling them with bales of cotton, 
laying stringers with plank upon them, building two bridges before mid- 
night. 

On the morning of the 18th Sherman was across the Big Black, push- 
ing north-west to hold the right of the line and opening communication 
Avith the fleet; McPherson was across, and pushing due west; McClernand 
was swinging south-west — all closing in upon Pemberton. 

General Grant knew nothing of the country, only that the Big Bayou, 
rising in the hills north-east of Yicksburg, ran south, and emptied into 
the Mississippi below the city ; that the country was much broken ; that 
there were ravines, hills, gullies, forests, thickets ; that the Confederates 
had lines of earthworks, forts, and batteries, making a lai-ge intrenched 
camp ; that there were several roads — one running out of the city south- 
west, parallel with the river; another south to Hall's Ferry; one east to 
Baldwin's Ferry, parallel with the railroad ; another north-east, called the 
Jackson road, and two others between the Jackson road and the Missis- 
sippi. He saw at a glance that the ground was higher north-east of the 
city than anywhere else. The ravines were deep, the banks sharp and 
steep, the woods thick with underbrush. He did not think that General 
Pemberton could have more than fifteen thousand men. He thought that 
the Confederates must be demoralized by their defeats, while his own 
troops were flushed with their victories, and were eager to finish Pember- 
ton. He had about thirty-five thousand men. 

The three corps were to push on at two o'clock in the afternoon of 
May 19th. General Sherman's troops were nearest the Confederate 
works. He was ready at the appointed hour. Blair's division led the 
attack. 

The troops come to a deep ravine, through which trickles a small 
stream westward to the Mississippi. The banks are sharp and high. 
Upon the south side of a ravine, at the top of a slope, were the Confed- 
erate breastworks, with abatis in fi-ont of them. The Confederates de- 
fending them had not been out of Yicksburg, and were not demoralized 
by defeat. 

The Union soldiers crossed the ravine, but become entangled in the 
abatis. The Regulars, under Captain Washington, cleared the obstructions 
and rushed upon the intrenchments. A pitiless storm beat in their faces. 
They reached the parapet. Captain Washington waved the flag as a signal 
for his soldiers to scale the parapet, but the next moment he fell mortally 
wounded, and the Confederates captured the flag. Other Union troops 
19 



290 MAECHING TO VICTOKY. 

rushed forward, but not enough to break the Confederate line. The troops 
remained in the woods till evening, and then fell back across the ravine. 

In the centre there were so many obstacles that McPherson could not 
get his men in position till nightfall, neither could McClernand. The at- 
tack had failed, and Grant had lost four hundred men. The Confederates 
were encouraged, and made their intrenchments still stronger. 

The Union army had been put on short rations, and the supplies were 
nearly exhausted. The troops had gathered what food they could find, 
but that too was almost gone. On the morning of the 21st General 
Grant was riding along the lines, when a soldier, seeing him, said, in a low 
voice, '•''Hard tack H Regiments took it up, and the cry rang along the 
lines, '■''Hard tack! Hard tackl^i^) 

" You shall have all the food you want in a short time, for ever since 
our arrival men have been building a road to the river that the wagons 
may bring up supplies." 

No more grumbling, but lusty cheers instead. 

All day and through the night the wagons were winding along the 
roads from the steamljoats on the Yazoo to the different brigades. The 
ammunition brought from Grand Gulf had been exhausted, and during 
May 20th and 21st the troops rested beneath, the shade of the forest-trees. 

There was little firing on the part of the Confederates. General Pem- 
berton was sparing of his ammunition. His great want w^as percussion- 
cajDS. The Union fieets were sending bombs into the cit}'', dismounting 
guns, exploding in the streets, doing great damage. The people dug 
caves in the hill-sides — men, women, and children there finding shelter. 
Pemberton had no longer any use for his cavalry horses, or for the mules 
of his supply train. He had no hay or grain to spare, and so turned them 
loose outside the intrenchments. Some of them came into the Union 
lines, but the worthless were shot down by the Union soldiers, and the air 
became tainted and unwholesome. 

We come to the morning of the 22d. Tlie Union engineers have rec- 
onnoitred the ground, planted batteries, and selected the points for attack. 
The crews of the mortar-fleet have placed six mortars in position to rain 
thirteen-inch shells upon the Confederates. Througli the night they send 
their terrible missiles upon the doomed city. At seven o'clock Admiral 
Porter comes up with his fleet — the Benton^ Mound City, Caj'ondelet, and 
Tuscumbia — and opens Are. The Union field artillery begin at daylight 
a terrific cannonade. For four hours the uproar goes on, the Confederates 
replying briskly at first, but their fire gradually slackens. 

Ten o'clock. — The hour has come for a combined attack. General 



THE OLD FLAG ON THE MISSISSIPPL 



291 



Sherman has placed Blair's division to attack along the road leading past 
the cemetery. General Tuttle's division is to support Blair's, while 
Steele's division is to advance nearer the Mississippi. There is a ditch 
to be crossed, which must first be bridged. Who will build the bridge 
under the storm that will be rained upon the builders ? One hundred and 
fifty men spring from the ranks ready to do it, though they know that it 
will be almost certain death. Swing's brigade stands ready behind the 
volunteer bridg-e-builders. 




HUTS ON THE HILL-SIDE. 



The hands of the watches, which have all been regulated, sweep on to 
ten o'clock. Not a Confederate is to be seen behind the intrenchments. 
The soldiers of the Confederacy are silent, motionless, biding their time. 
The Union troops — Ewing's, Giles Smith's, and Kirby Smith's brigades — 
are sheltered in the ravine six hundred feet distant from the breastworks. 
Twenty -four Union cannon are planted to pour a concentrated fire upon 
the fort which is to be assaulted. Up from their shelter spring the one 
hundred and fifty volunteers, rushing up the narrow road with poles and 
boards. Ewing's men are behind them. Suddenly the fort is ablaze. 
General Hebert's Confederates are upon their feet delivering a terrific 
volley upon the volunteers, who fall headlong to the earth. Ewing's men 
press on. They reach the ditch, cross it, climb the parapet, plant their 



292 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

flag upon the upheaved embankment. The man who plants it falls. His 
comrades go down. The ground is thickly strewn with naen in blue. 
Ewing is rolled back, but his men leave the flag still waving where they 
planted it. Confederate after Confederate attempts to seize it, but is 
shot down by the Union men sheltered in the thicket. Through the 
day it floats in the summer breeze, riddled by bullets of friend and foe. 
Through the day Ewing's men lie in the woods within, a stone's -throw 
of it. 

Going south along the Union lines, we come to McPherson's corps ; 
Ransom's brigade of McArthur's division holding the I'ight south of the 
cemetery road, Logan's division in the centre, and Quimby's on the left, 
between the Jackson and Baldwin roads. 

Logan's division leads the attack. J. E. Smith's brigade is along the 
road ; Stevenson's south of it. Both are to attack the strong fort which 
stands north of the road. So terrible the fire that bursts upon Smith that 
his men recoil ; but Stevenson's men rush on, the Seventh Missouri plant- 
ing its colors on the parapet of the fort. The bearer falls. A second sol- 
dier seizes them. He, too, falls ; the third, fourth, fifth, sixth all go down 
in as many minutes, their life-blood staining the yellow earth. In vain the 
effort, and the brigade, to save itself from utter annihilation, falls back to 
the shelter of the ravine. 

In McClernand's corps Benton's and Lawler's brigades are selected to 
lead the attack, Burbridge's brigade is in support of Benton, and Lan- 
dram's behind Lawler. The fort which they are to attack is on a hill a 
few rods south of the railroad. The Twenty-first and Twenty-second Iowa 
charge up the hill. They reach the ditch outside the fort. Sergeant Jo- 
seph Griffith, with a squad of men, clears the ditch, scales the parapet, 
leaps into the fort ; but nearly all except the sergeant are killed. The Con- 
federates flee to a second embankment three hundred feet in rear of the 
first. The Twenty-second low^a takes possession, plants its colors upon 
the parapet ; but the men are obliged to shelter themselves from the fire 
rained upon them from the second intrenchment. Landram's men join 
them, and the Seventy-seventh Illinois also plants its colors upon the par- 
apet. Through the day the Union men hold the outside of a portion of 
the intrenchment, the Confederates the inside. Equally brave are Ben- 
ton's and Burbridge's men — reaching the ditch, holding the outside. 

Half -past ten. — The three divisions have attacked at the same moment ; 
each has reached the parapet. 

General Grant had seen the attacks. From his position, just behind 
Blair's division, he could look down the line and see the brigades one after 



THE OLD FLAG ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 293 

another rush "iip the steep slope. He could see the struggle to gain pos- 
session of the forts, the flags waving upon the parapets, the brave men in 
blue lying upon the ground, their life-work ended. He saw that the at- 
tacks had failed. It was half-past eleven when he received a message from 
McClernand, who said that he was hotly engaged ; that the enemy was 
massing on his right and left ; that if McPherson would strike a vigorous 
blow it Avould aid him. A little later came another message : 

" We are hotly engaged with the enemy. We have possession of two 
forts, and the Stars and Stripes are floating over them. A vigorous push 
ought to be made all along the line." 

A third message from McClernand — one o'clock : 

" We have gained the enemy's intrenchments at several points, but are 
brought to a stand. I have sent word to Mc Arthur to reinforce me if he 
can. Would it not be best to concentrate the whole or a part of his com- 
mand at this point? My troops are all engaged, and I cannot withdraw 
any to reinforce them." 

A commander in battle must act upon information from his subordi- 
nates. He can see personally very little of what is going on. To Grant's 
own mind, judging from what he could see, the attack had failed ; but 
McClernand, according to the despatches, was in possession of the Confed- 
erate works. If so, would not a vigorous attack by Sherman and McPher- 
son complete the victory ? He shows the despatches to those officers, and 
directs them to renew the assault. 

We see Quimby's division hastening to support McClernand ; Tuttle's 
division moves up to support Blair ; Giles Smith's and Ransom's brigades 
unite to rush upon the intrenchments between tlie cemetery and the little 
stream west of it ; Steele's division works its way amid the ravines and 
knolls farther west ; Logan's division, on the Jackson road, rushes once 
more upon the intrenchments. 

Again the cannon are thundering, muskets flashing, solid shot j)lough- 
ing up the mellow earth, hurling clouds of dust into the air ; shells burst- 
ing ; Union soldiers falling thick and fast ; the lines halting, wavering, 
rolled back at last, leaving the ground thickly strewn with dead and 
dying. 

The battle ends, with nothing gained on the part of Grant. Of the 
thirty-five thousand troops, nearly thirty thousand have been engaged, and 
more than four thousand have been killed or woimded. 

Had it not been for the misleading despatches from McClernand, the 

assault in the afternoon would not have been ordered. The Confederates, 

sheltered by their breastworks, suffered little loss comparatively. No one 
19* 



294 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

will ever know how many were killed or disabled on that afternoon, but 
Pemberton's loss was probably not more than five or six hundred. 

Night comes, and the Union troops, weary, exhausted, broken-down by 
constant marching and scant supply of food, are withdrawn. The attempt 
to capture Vicksburg by direct attack had failed. The Union troops had 
suffered heavy loss. They had received their first check, and were in a 
measure discouraged. The Confederate troops had suffered little, and were 
greatly elated. Their enthusiasm was kept alive by the hope and confi- 
dent expectation that General Johnston would soon be falling upon Grant 
with a great army. They did not take into account the fact that the re- 
sources of the Confederacy were failing ; that men were not to be had to 
repair locomotives, build cars, relay tracks, restore destroyed material. 

There was one way by which Vicksburg might possibly have been 
saved to the Confederacy : the quick transportation of the army under 
General Bragg, near Chattanooga, to the rear of Vicksburg ; attacking 
Grant before reinforcements could reach him. It was not done. There 
were divided councils at Richmond. Jefferson Davis had a personal quar- 
rel with General Johnston, and paid little heed to his requests, while Gen- 
eral Johnston was lacking in essential qualities needful in a great emer- 
gency; and before he could collect an army from scattered remnants of 
troops the great opportunity for recovering what had been lost went by, 
never to return. 

"When the sun went down on the night of May 22, 1863, General Grant 
saw that it would not be possible for him to break Pemberton's lines by 
any direct attack. To capture Vicksburg he must begin a siege. To carry 
out the siege successfullj^ he must have more troops. He had not enough 
to cover more than half the distance around the city. Besides, he knew 
that General Johnston was out north-east of him with the remnants of the 
force which had been defeated at Jackson. He reasoned that Johnston 
would sunnnon troops from every quarter to attack him and compel him 
to abandon the siege. Befoi*e daylight General Grant had planned a new 
campaign. Osterhaus's division in the morning was on its way east to 
guard the bridge across the Big Black River. Following these troops, six 
brigades — three from the Fifteenth Corps, three from the Seventeenth Corps 
— marched north-east under General Blair to Mechanicsburg to drive off any 
Confederate troops gathering in that direction. The gunboats steamed up 
to Yazoo City, destroying all the Confederate steamboats. 

" Send me all the troops possible," was Grant's order to Hurlbut at 
Memphis. Lanman's division was already on its way down the west bank 
of the Mississippi. 



THE OLD FLAG ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 297 

The steamboats below the city ferried the six tlionsand men in tlie divis- 
ion to the eastern shore, and Lauman took position between McClernand 
and the river. 

" I need more troops," was the telegram to Halleck in Washington. 

" Send Grant all available troops," was Ilalleck's message to Scliofield, 
commanding at St. Louis ; to Burnside in Cincinnati, commanding the 
Ninth Corps. Schofield sent General Herron's division ; Burnside, Gen- 
eral Parke's division, the troops steaming down the river. A new division 
arrived under General Kimball. General Rosecrans said that he was 
about executing a movement, and could not spare any troops. Herron 
arrived June 8th, joined Lauman, and closed the last gap in the line. 

A division of the Sixteenth Corps, under Gen. W. S. Smith, arrived 
June 11th, was united with Kimball's division, and placed, under the com- 
mand of General Washburne, north-east of the city. Parke's division came 
on June 14th, landing at Howe's Bluff, swelling Grant's army to seventy- 
one thousand men, witli two hundred and forty-eight cannon. 

We are to remember that there were two Confederate armies — one of 
twenty-one thousand effective men hemmed up in Yicksburg, and a large 
and constantly increasing force under Johnston gathering at Canton, north- 
east of Grant's army. Johnston reached Canton May 2d. The next day 
Gist's brigade arrived from South Carolina, Ector's and McNair's from 
Chattanooga, and Loring's from Jackson. Before June 3d, Evans's brigade 
arrived from South Carolina, Breckinridge's division from Chattanooga, 
and a division of cavalry under Jackson — in all, thirty-six thousand men.. 
Johnston had men, but he lacked wagon trains and supplies of all kinds. 
The Federal cavalry under Grierson had burned railroad bridges and com- 
mitted great havoc. 

Johnston found it exceedingly difficult to organize his army sufficiently 
to take the field. He was harassed by orders from Richmond to attack 
Grant, no matter what the risk might be. But Richmond was far away, 
and Jefferson Davis and the Secretary of War had slight knowledge of 
the difficulties besetting him. 

" I consider the saving of Yicksburg hopeless," was Johnston's tele- 
gram on June 15th. 

"Yicksburg must not be lost without a desperate struggle," was the 
answer from Richmond, 

" Grant is covered by the Big Black," said Johnston. 

" Grant must be attacked if possible," w^as once more the message from 
Richmond. 

If Johnston could not attack Grant, he might hasten south and attack 



298 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

Banks, who was laying siege to Port Hudson. A courier made his waj 
through Grant's lines to Pemberton with Johnston's plan, which was to 
attack Grant, while Pemberton was to improve the opportunity to cut liis 
way out. 

The courier returned with Pemberton's answer. Johnston was to 
attack Grant north of the railroad, while Pemberton would cut his way 
out south of it. 

We are not to think that the Union troops were lying still, taking their 
ease during those bright days. On the contrary, no beavers ever worked 
so steadily, day and night, as they — building intrenchments, throwing up 
fortifications, making gabions, or great baskets of willows and grape-vines, 
filling them with earth, and digging what the engineers call saps and par- 
allels. A sap is a trench, or gallery, made with the intention of under- 
mining a fort. The soldiers constructed sap-rollers by filling barrels with 
earth. 

As soon as the sun disappeared and the twilight faded from the sky, 
men with shovels, lying on the ground, began rolling the barrels towards 
the Confederate forts. When they got as near as they dared, they began 
to dig a trench. The barrel sheltered them from the sharp-shooters. Be- 
fore morning they would have a trench in which they could lie through 
the day, to begin digging again at night. They cut notches in logs and 
laid the logs on the top of the earth thrown up, with the notches turned 
down. Through the day the sharp-shooters stood with their rifles pointing 
towards the forts, peeping through the notches to catch sight of a Con- 
federate head. Some of the soldiers, instead of using the barrels, would 
spring out with their shovels, make the earth fly lively, and in five minutes 
liave a trench deep enongh for shelter before the Confederates were 
aware of what was going on. 

Every night the Union works were brought nearer to the Confeder- 
ates, who would open their eyes in amazement in the morning to see a 
new earthwork, with cannon peeping through the embrasures, not three 
hundred feet distant. As soon as it was dark each army threw out its 
pickets ; the soldiers lay upon the ground so near to one another that they 
could carry on conversation. 

" We won't fire if you won't," shouted a Confederate. 

" Agreed." 

Provisions were getting scarce in Yicksburg. 

" How do you like mule-steak ?" was the banter of the Union soldier. 

They talked of the war, of Abraham Lincoln, Jeff Davis, the Emanci- 
pation Proclamation, exchanged newspapers, traded coffee and tobacco. 



THE OLD FLAG ON THE MISSISSIPPL 



299 




SH A liP- SHOOTERS. 



Officers met old acquaintances and shook hands in the darkness ; but when 
morning dawned the Union pickets returned to the trenches, the Confed- 
erates to the forts. 

The gunboats and mortar-rafts opened fire at ten o'clock, Wednesday, 
May 2Yth. AVhile those below the city sent their shells up-stream, 
the Cincinnati, which was above the city, came round the bend of the 
river, ran out her guns, and delivered a terrific fire upon the batteries 



300 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

at the foot of the hill. At the top of the bluff was an eight-inch rifled 
cannon which the Confederate soldiers named Whistling Dick. They 
could always tell when Dick was at work from tlie shrill whistle of its 
shell. It was so high above the Cincinnati that it could send a plunging 
shot down upon its deck. The gunner obtained the exact range, and sent 
a pointed bolt which crashed through the thin iron plating, making sad 
havoc on board the boat. Another, a third, pierced the plating. The ves- 
sel was rapidly leaking, and before the oflicers could get out of range it 
ran aground upon a sand-bar, and was utterly disabled. Many of her 
crew were killed or wounded. 

"Issue short rations," was the order of Major-general Stevenson, who 
had charge of the Confederate food department.(^) This was what the 
soldiers had to eat each day : four ounces of flour, four of bacon, one and 
one-half of rice, two of pease, three of sugar. Tlie pease were wormy, the 
bacon rancid. It was less than one-quarter of a regular ration. The Con- 
federate soldiers had a hard time. They could not show themselves above 
the breastworks, could not walk around, but must lie all day in the broil- 
ing sun or pelting rain, without shelter. They could not leave their posts 
to wash or obtain water. The Union solid shot were tearing through the 
embankments, or shells were bursting among them. 

The Union artillerymen wanted small mortars. To obtain them they 
cut down oak-trees, sawed them into short logs about three feet long, cut 
a round hole in one end large enough to take in a shell, bound the logs 
with iron bands, placed them in the trenches, loaded them with small 
charges, and tossed shells into the Confederate lines. 

The Confederate soldiers were still animated with the hope and expec- 
tation that Johnston would soon have a great army, and would fall on 
Grant's rear and compel him to abandon the siege. 

"Not the slightest fear," writes a Confederate, "was expressed of the 
city ever falling into the hands of the enemy ; not a man, woman, or 
child believed such an event at all likely to occur, but all anticipated the 
defeat and destruction of Grant's army as soon as Johnston arrived with 
fifty thousand men he was reported to have under his command. "Q 

The negroes who flocked to the Union army were set to work. Dur- 
ing the month of June twelve miles of trenches were excavated, eighty- 
nine batteries constructed, and two hundred and twenty guns placed in 
position, each opening fire upon the Confederate lines. 

One of the principal Confederate forts was near the Jackson road. 
The Union engineers determined to undermine it. The trench was car- 
ried beneath the fort and a ton of powder was tamped into the earth. On 



THE OLD FLAG ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



301 



June 25tli all was ready — the fuse laid and fired. There was a heavy jar, 
a roar, and the air was filled with earth, timber, cannon, and men. 

One of the men was a negro slave, who had been set to work by the 
Confederates, but who was blown into the Union lines and into freedom 
at the same time. He was very much frightened. 

" How high did you go up V asked a soldier. 

" Dunno, massa ; t'ink I neber should light — yah ! yah ! Went up 
"bout free mile." He became General Logan's servant — a free man. 




BLOWING UP THE FORT. 



All along the line the Union artillerymen stood beside their guns wait- 
ing for the explosion. When the dull roar rolled along the ravines, the 
cannon opened fire. Two regiments rushed in and held the line, but 
found the Confederates had a second fortification in the rear. 

" The enemy's sharp-shooters were all splendid marksmen, and effectu- 
ally prevented any of our men from rising above the parapet on pain of 
certain death, while it was an utter impossibility for our cannoneers to 
load the guns remaining in position on our line without being exposed to 
the aim of a dense line of sharp-shooters," wrote a Confederate soldier. (') 



302 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

Famine was staring the people of Vicksbiirg in the face. Many fami- 
lies had eaten the last mouthful of food, and were supplied from the mili- 
tary stores. Those who were rich scorned the idea of living on commissary 
supplies so long as any food was to be had. The few provision-dealers who 
had flour, meal, or bacon charged five dollars for a pound of flour, or one 
thousand dollars a Imrrel ; meal was one hundred and forty dollars per 
bushel, molasses twelve dollars per gallon, and beef two dollars and fifty 
cents per pound. (') 

We are to remember that these prices were in Confederate money, 
which was getting to be of little value in the estimation of the people. 

Some of the citizens were very generous, and refused to take advantage 
of the necessities of others, handing over all their supplies to a commit- 
tee who looked after the wants of the people living in the caves on the hill- 
side or in their cellars. This the picture from the diary of a lady who 
lived in a cellar, but who sometimes went up-stairs for a little fresh air : 

" I was just within the door when a crash came that threw me to the 
floor. It was the most appalling sensation I had ever known. Shaken and 
deafened, I picked myself up. Candles were useless in the dense smoke, 
and it was many minutes before we could see. Then we found the entire 
side of the room torn out. The soldiers who had rushed in said that it was 
an eighty-pound Parrott. It had burst upon the pallet bed, which was in 
tatters ; the toilet service and everything else in the room was smashed. We 
went to bed in the cellar as usual. In the morning we found that two 
more had ploughed up the yard. . . . 

'-'■June 21st. — I had gone up-stairs to-day to enjoy a rest on my bed, 
when a shell burst right outside the window in front of me. Pieces flew 
in, striking all around me, tearing down masses of plaster that came tum- 
bling over me. When H rushed in I was crawling out of the plaster, 

digging it out of my eyes and hair. He picked up a piece as big as a 
saucer beside my pillow. The window-frame began to smoke, and we saw 
that the house was on fire. He got a hatchet and I some water, and we 
put it out. Another shell came crashing near, and I snatched up my comb 
and brush and ran. It has taken all the afternoon to get the plaster out of 
my hair, for my hands were rather shaky."(') 

Several women and citizens were killed or wounded. 

It is the continual dropping that wears the stone at last. The Confed- 
erates were brave. Day and night for six weeks they had held the in- 
trenchments against all assaults. Day and night the terrible storm of shot, 
shell, and minie-bullets had swept over them. The Confederate cannon had 
been dismantled ; they had seen their comrades blown into the air ; had 



THE OLD FLAG ON THE MISSISSIPPL 303 

lived on one-fourth rations, and had had little sleep. Physical strength 
was failing, ability to endure had gone, hope of relief faded. Johnston 
had not coine, nor could he ; Grant was keeping him at bay. They had 
little conhdence in their commander. The inevitable hour was approach- 
ing ; every soldier knew it just as well as Pemberton, 

It was a curious letter which Pemberton received June 28th, dated " In 
the trenches," and signed " Many Soldiers." Thus it read : 

"Everybody admits that we have all covered ourselves with glory ; but, 
alas! alas! general, a crisis has arrived in the midst of our siege. Our ra- 
tions have been cut down to one biscuit and a small bit of bacon per day — 
not enough scarcely to keep soul and body together, much less to stand the 
hardships we are called upon to stand. We are actually on sufferance, and 
the consequence is, as far as I can hear, there is complaining and general 
dissatisfaction throughout our lines. We are and have been kept close in 
the trenches day and night, not allowed to forage any at all, and even if 
permitted there is nothing to be had among the citizens. 

" Men don't want to starve and don't intend to, but they call upon you 
for justice, if the Commissary Department can give it ; if it can't, you 
must adopt some means to relieve us very soon. The emergency of the 
case demands prompt and decided action on your part. 

" If you can't feed us you had better surrender us — horrible as the idea 
is — than suffer this noble army to disgrace themselves by desertion. I tell 
you plainly men are not going to lie here and perish. If they do love their 
country, self-preservation is the first law of nature, and hunger will com- 
pel a man to do almost anything. You had better heed a warning voice, 
though it is the voice of a private soldier. 

" This army is now ripe for mutiny unless it can be fed." 

This the condition in the city as described by a Confederate : 

" Starvation in its worst forms now confronted the unfortunate inhab- 
itants, and had the siege lasted two weeks longer the consequences would- 
have been terrible. All the beef was exhausted by this time, and mules 
were soon brought into requisition, and their meat sold readily at a dollar a 
pound, the citizens being as anxious to get it as they were before the in- 
vestment to purchase the delicacies of the season. "(°) 

This in the lady's diary : 

'''■July Sd. — Provisions so nearly gone, except the hogshead of sugar, 
that a few more days will bring starvation indeed. Martha says that rats 
are hanging dressed in the market for sale with mule-meat ; there is noth- 
ing else. An officer at the battery told me he had eaten one yesterday.''^") 

What could General Pemberton do ? He must either cut his way 



304 MAECHING TO VICTORY. 

out or surrender. Tliere were hot-headed officers in his army, who talked 
bravely of their ability to cut their way through Grant's lines ; but cooler 
heads saw that it was impossible. General Pemberton knew that his 
men were worn down with constant watching, loss of sleep, and want of 
food. He knew that if he were even able to break through Grant's lines 
anywhere except towards the north-east nothing would be gained. He 
would be hemmed in by the Big Black Kiver. He sent a circular letter 
to his commanders asking their opinions on this question : " Can the army 
make the marches and undergo the fatigues necessary to accomplish a suc- 
cessful evacuation ?" 

" It cannot," was the answer of Major-generals Smith, Forney, and 
Bowen. "My men," answered General Stevenson, "are greatly enfee- 
bled, but I believe that most of them, rather than be captured, would 
exert themselves to the utmost." 

" An evacuation is impossible, on account of the temper of the trooj^s," 
said General Smith. 

"We cannot cut our way out," said most of the brigade commanders. 

The major-generals came to Pemberton's headquarters. "What should 
be done ?" There was but one answer : " Surrender." 

It is July 3d. The Union pickets are in their places ; the sharp-shoot- 
ers watching to discover a Confederate head peering above the breast- 
works, but instead, the pickets on the Jackson road see a white flag wav- 
ing in the morning sun. The joyful news runs along the lines. Men 
who have been lying low upon the ground stand upon their feet. Two 
Confederate officers climb over the intrenchments — General Bowen and 
Colonel Montgomery — and walk towards the Union lines with a letter 
from Pemberton to Grant, asking that commissionei-s be appointed to 
arrange for terms of capitulation. 

"My terms are unconditional surrender of the city and the troops," 
was the reply. 

General Grant was ready to assure Pemberton that the men who had 
shown so much courage and endured such hardships should be treated 
with respect. If General Pemberton wished to see him personally, he 
would meet him in front of the lines at three o'clock. The hour came, 
and General Grant, with Generals Ord, McPherson, Logan, and A. J. 
Smith, walked out from the Union lines south of the Jackson road. At 
the same moment Pemberton, Bowen, and several other officers advanced 
from the Confederate lines. The parties lifted their hats to each other. 

" What terms will you allow ?" Pemberton asked. 

" Those which I have already indicated," was the reply. 



«^/|f,ifci*fc/f/// 



' III '" 




20 



THE OLD FLAG ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 307 

" The conference may as well terminate," said Pemberton. 
" Very well," said General Grant. 

General Pemberton knew that the contest could not go on, and they 
sat down and talked it over. 

The Fourth of July dawned — a great day in the history of our coun- 
try. Terms of surrender had been agreed upon. Thirty -one thousand 
men gave up their arms, with one hundred and seventy-two cannon. 

In March General Pemberton had 61,495 men. That great army had 
disappeared. All but the six thousand under Loring who broke away at 
the battle of Champion Hills were lost to the Confederacy. Since March 
Pemberton has lost two hundred and sixty cannon. 

The Union troops marched into the city, and the Stars and Stripes 
were raised above the court-house. Then the great fleet of steamboats 
came steaming to the levee, with their colors flying. 

Once more from a woman's diai-y : " Truly it was a fine spectacle to 
see the fleet of transports sweep around the curve and anchor in the teeth 

of the batteries lately vomiting fire. Presently Mr. J passed us. 

' Aren't you coming ? There's provisions on those boats — coffee and 
flour.' . . . The town-folk continued to dash through the streets with their 

arms full, canned goods predominating. Towards five Mr. J passed 

again. 'Keep on the lookout,' he said; 'the army of occupation is com- 
ing ;' and in a few minutes the head of the column appeared. What a 
contrast to the suffering creatures we had seen were these stalwart, well- 
fed men, so splendidly set up and accoutred ! Sleek horses, polished arms, 
bright plumes ; this was the pride and panoply of war. Civilization, dis- 
cipline, and order seemed to enter with the measured tramp of those 
marching columns, and the heart turns with throbs of added pity to the 
worn men in gray who were being blindly dashed against this embodi- 
ment of modern power."(") 

General Johnston had gathered twenty-six thousand men, and on June 
29th he marched west towards the Big Black River to make a demonstra- 
tion in Grant's rear, but was confronted by Sherman with the Fifteenth 
Corps, under General Steele, the Thirteenth, under General Ord, the 
Ninth, under General Parke, with Lauman's and W. S. Smith's divisions, 
making altogether forty thousand. 

General Johnston saw that he could not attack Sherman with any hope 
of success. While pondering the state of affairs a messenger reached him 
with the news that Yicksburg had surrendered. He turned east and 
marches once more to Jackson, his despondent troops reaching the town 



308 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

Julj 7th. Shennan was at his heels, the Union troops crossing Big Black 
the same day. The sun poured down its fiercest rays ; the troops snffei-ed 
for want of water and from heat. The Confederates strengthened the in- 
trenchments. Sherman was too wise to attempt to storm the breastworks. 
The Fifteenth Corps was in the centre, the Thirteenth on the right, the 
Ninth on the left, north of the town. The cannonade began, and there 
was constant skirmishing. Sherman's wagons were bringing bales of cot- 
ton for breastworks, while the Union cavalry swept north and south along 
the railroad, destroying the track. 

While this is going on at Jackson let us look at the last stronghold of 
the Confederates on the Mississippi — Port Hudson. Slaves had been at 
work many months building Confederate intrenchments upon the bluff 
overlooking the river. The works were very strong, the paraj^et twenty 
feet thick, and the ditch outside the intrenchments fifteen feet deep. 
Along the river were twenty heavy siege-guns. Admiral Farragut had 
tried in vain to silence them with his fleet, but his vessels had been 
roughly handled, and some of them destroyed. 

The river makes a bend, running north-east, then turning sharply 
south, and the great guns in the fortifications could send a plunging fire 
upon the fleet. The place could be captured only by an army. 

The Confederate works protecting the rear began a mile below the 
town, near Ross's Landing, ran east amid hills and knolls, came out upon 
an open plain dotted with trees, then ran parallel with the river a mile 
east of it to Thompson's Creek, a little stream that trickles amid the 
knolls. There were thirty cannon along these intrenchments. Seven 
thousand Confederate troops, under the command of Major-general Gard- 
ner, held the place. 

General Johnston at the outset saw that a Union army under General 
Banks, which had been operating west of the Mississippi, was moving east, 
and would cross the Mississippi, get in rear of Port Hudson, and begin 
a siege. He sent a messenger. May 19th, with orders for Gardner to 
evacuate the place ; but the messenger did not arrive till the 23d. He was 
a day late, for the Union troops were landing below the city and closing 
around it — Gen. T. "W. Sherman's division, near Ross's Landing; then 
Augur's division, south-east of the town, Paine's in the centre, and Weit- 
zel's north. Grierson's cavalry, after a three-weeks' rest, had been scour- 
ing the country east to hold in check any Confederate forces gathering in 
that direction, 

"Assault along the whole line," was the order of General Banks. 

The sun had just risen, May 25th, when the Union artillery opened fire. 



THE OLD FLAG ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



311 




Through the forenoon the uproar went on. It was mid-afternoon before 
the grand assault began. The troops advanced over broken ground, and 
their progress was difficult and slow. They were in the open field and suf- 
fered severely, while the Confederates, behind their intrenchments, lost few 
men. With a hurrah the Union troops rushed upon the fortifications, 
reached the ditch, to see that it would 
not be possible for them to scale the 
parapet. They were compelled to fall 
back, leaving the ground strewn witli 
nearly two thousand killed and wounded. 
It had been a brave but fruitless assault. 
The Confederate loss was hardly three 
hundred. 

On the morning of the 26th the 
Union soldiers placed siege-guns in po- 
sition, which sent heavy shells into 
the Confederate lines. The Union line 
was seven miles long, and no end of 
labor had to be done — earth shovelled, 
trees cut down, trenches dug, cannon 
moved. 

On June 13th General Banks sent a 
summons to General Gardner to surrender, who refused. Once more the 
Union troops rushed upon the Confederate works, but they could not 
cross the ditch. They gained new ground, and held it, but at a cost of 
nearly two thousand killed and wounded. 

The shovel, and not the baj'onet, did its work. Every night the 
trenches were carried nearer the Confederate lines. 

On July 7th a messenger arrived from Vicksburg with the news that 
it had surrendered. A wild cheer went up from the Union line. The 
soldiers tossed their hats into the air and screamed themselves hoarse. 
They shouted the news to the Confederates, " Yicksburg is ours !" A 
white flag came out from the Confederate lines. An officer brought a 
letter from General Gardner to General Banks asking if the news is true, 
and carried back a copy of Grant's letter. 

The morning of July 8th dawns. Again the white flag flies above the 
Confederate intrenchments. General Gardner is ready to surrender. His 
provisions are exhausted. His troops are eating mule-meat. Some of 
them have eaten cats and dogs. It is useless to prolong the contest. At 
nine o'clock three Union and three Confederate officers meet between the 



MAP OF PORT HUDSON. 



312 



MARCHING TO YlCTOIiY. 



lines to arrange the terms of capitulation. Seven thousand troops, fiftj- 
one cannon, and all the stores are given up. 

Going back now to Jackson, we see, on July 12th, Lauman's division 
of Union troops falling upon the Confederates, to be repulsed with a loss 
of five hundred. 

Sherman needs ammunition for his artillery. The trains arrive July 
16th, but 6n the morning of the 17th, when the cannon are ready to open 
fire, not a Confederate is to be seen. Johnston has stolen away, marching 
east towards Alabama. Sherman burns bridges and depots, levels the for- 




ARRIVAL OF THE STEAMER "IMPERIAL. 



tifications, distributes food to the poor people, and then turns west towards 
Vicksburg. 

The last vestige of Confederate power and authority had disappeared 
from the Mississippi. Once more its waters were free to the commerce of 
the great West. On the 16th, while Johnston was hastening eastward from 
Jackson, the steamboat Imperial, from St. Louis, was rounding up to the 
levee at New Orleans amid the shouts of the multitude. The great river 



THE OLD FLAG ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 315 

was flowing peacefully to the sea, with no Confederate cannon command- 
ing its waters. 

The troojDS of the North-west had declared to the world that thence- 
forth it should flow through an undivided country, and together with the 
Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg had manifested to the nations of 
Europe that thenceforth the country was to be one nation, under one flag, 
with Union and Liberty forever. 



NOTES TO CHAPTER XIV. 

( ') "A Woman's Diary, Siege of Vicksburg," Century Magazine, September, 1885. 

( -) Abniliams, "Siege of Viclisburg," p. 29. 

( ^) General Grant, Century Magazine, September, 188o. 

( ■•) Abrahams, " Siege of Viclisburg, "p. 42. 

( s) Idem. 

( «) Idem. 

{ ■) Idem. 

( **) "A Woman's Diary," Century Magazine, April, 1885. 

( *) Abrahams, " Siege of Vicksburg," p. 67. 

('") "A Woman's Diarj''," Century Magazine, April, 1885. 

(") Idem. 



316 ' MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



CHAPTEK XY. 

MIDSUMMER, 1863. 

^TMIE miclsiimmer days, briglit witli sunsliine, perfumed with flowers, 
-L were days of gloom tliroiighont the States of the Confederacy. The 
month of June had been one of confident expectation, exhilaration of spirit 
— a looking forward to the time, near at hand, when the army of General 
Lee would be in Philadelphia or Baltimore, or flinging out the flag of the 
Confederacy above the marble walls of the Capitol, to be followed by 
recognition as a nation by France, England, and the other European pow- 
ers. Instead of this the Confederate troops were once more in Virginia, 
having met with a disastrous defeat and frightful losses, which carried 
sorrow and mourning to thousands of homes. More than this, Vicksburg 
and Port Hudson had surrendered, with all their cannon and material, 
and more than thirty-five thousand troops as prisoners of war. During 
the summer months, the losses of the Confederacy, by battle and surren- 
der, aggregated not far from seventy -five thousand men. The States 
west of the Mississippi were cut off from those east. In addition to these 
disasters, Rosecrans, by a strategic movement from Murfreesboro, was 
forcing General Bragg out of the State of Tennessee. Of the situation of 
affairs a Richmond paper said, " The sadness which lately seized the 
Southern people, though not without cause, was without justification. It 
was the result of heavy and sudden disappointment overtaking the public 
mind while in a high state of exhilaration, confidence, and expectation. 
It was due to two great misfortunes occurring simultaneously in quarters 
where nothing of the sort was at all apprehended. The repulse at Gettys- 
burg was certainly an event w^hich there was no reason to anticipate. It 
was the result of an attack where an attack was desperate and hopeless. 
But for that attack Lincoln would now have been a fugitive from his 
Capitol, and Meade's army a scattered and demoralized mob."(') " The 
news of the Vicksburg surrender is not less astonishing than unpleasant. 
It is the most unexpected announcement which has boon made in this 
war."n 



MIDSUMMER, 18G3. . 317 

Tlie Richmond newspaper wliich was regarded as the organ of Jeffer- 
son Davis said, "Despondency is both folly and treason. The men had 
greater cause for unutterable disgust and loathing of our fiendish enemies, 
who this day prefer going under the sod to going under their yoke. This 
is not the hour for lassitude or discouragement, but for new efforts and a 
higher resolve."(') 

" Our Yankee enemies," said a Charleston paper, "are very exultant at 
the fall of Yicksburg and Port Hudson into their hands. If they were 
any other people than they are, they would be ashamed of their success. 
They have succeeded not by their valor or skill in arms ; every effort they 
made to take the fortified position by storm failed. . . . Confederate imbe- 
cility, not their courage or energy, occasioned the fall of Yicksburg and 
Port Hudson. Yet after being thrashed a dozen times, and our troops, 
surrounded by overwhelming numbers, surrender to starvation, they re- 
joice with frantic exultation. This is characteristic of the people. They 
have no delicacy, no pride, no conscience. Coarse, brutal, and unscrupu- 
lous, it is a matter of no consequence to them how they obtain success. . . . 
They are humiliated by no disaster ; they are mortified by no defeats. 
They fight for gain, and know neither honor nor glory nor shame in ob- 
taining it."(^) 

Gettysburg and Yicksburg together marked the beginning of the ebb- 
tide in the fortunes of the Confederacy. Never again to the people of 
the South would return the high hope and exultant expectations of those 
early summer days. 

There was joy in the loyal States — church-bells ringing joyful peals, 
cannon thundering salutes. From every State men and women and 
maidens hastened to Gettysburg to the hospitals there, or to those on the 
Mississippi, or wherever there were sick or wounded, to minister to their 
wants, to sit by their beds through the sultry nights, watching the ebb 
and flow of life ; listening to the last words of the dying, writing down 
the last prayer or blessing to be read by loved ones far away — caring 
alike for Union and Confederate. Never in the history of the world had 
there been such an outpouring of sympathy, devotion, and tenderness. 
On the battle-field and in the hospital patriotism and all the highest 
and noblest qualities of heart and soul shone resplendent as the mid- 
day sun. 

" Can I do anything for you ?" w^as the question kindly put to a Con- 
federate officer from South Carolina. 

" No," the surly reply. 

The day was hot, the air offensive from the thousands of wounded in 



318 MAKCHING TO VICTORY. 

the wards of the hospital on the hill-side just outside from Gettysbui-g, 
and the gentleman who had left home and business to care for the wound- 
ed had brought a bottle of cologne to make sweet the tainted air. 

" Let me put some of this on your handkerchief." 

" I have no handkerchief." 

" Here is one for you ;" and wetting it with the perfume, he placed it 
in the hands of the Confederate, who, with tears upon his face and a 
choking in his throat, said, " I can't understand you Yankees. You fight 
us like devils, and then you care for us with the tenderness of angels. 1 
am sorry I entered this war."(') So in the hospitals men learned the 
eternal truth that love is the mightiest moral force in the universe of God. 

" May every hair of your head be a wax-taper to light you on your 
way to glory," said a jolly Irish Confederate soldier as the gentleman 
bathed his face with the perfume. Q 

" Have you written to your mother since the battle ?" was the question 
put by a chaplain to a boy. 

" No, sir, and there is the reason why I have not," said the boy, as he 
laid the sheet aside with his left hand, exposing the stump of his right arm ; 
"and there is another reason," he added, as he pointed to his left leg 
amputated. "And now, sir, if you will be so kind as to write for me, tell 
mother that I liave given my right arm and my left leg to my country, 
and that I am ready to give the others. "(') 

But there were men in the Northern States who experienced no thrill 
of joy when they learned that victories had been won at Gettysburg and 
Vicksburg, that the tide of the Mississippi was flowing freely once more, 
and that the Stars and Stripes was emblem of sovereignty from its source 
to the sea. To them the ringing of the church-bells was discordant music, 
and the song of the "Star Spangled Banner" a hateful melody. 

On the 3d of March Congress had passed a law making legal the act 
of Abraham Lincoln in suspending the writ of Habeas Corpus whenever 
the safety of the country demanded it. Mr. Yallandigham was back once 
more in Ohio— the nominee of the Democratic party for governor. Pub- 
lic meetings had been held in that State, in Pennsylvania, and at Albany, 
at which the friends of Mr. Vallandigham drew up memorials to Presi- 
dent Lincoln, asking him to revoke all orders relating to his arrest. Plain 
and direct, and to all loyal hearts very convincing, was the reply of the 
President to the Democrats of New York. These his words : 

" Long experience has shown that armies cannot be maintained unless 
desertion shall be punished by the severe penalty of death. The law re- 
quires and the law of the Constitution sanctions this punishment. Must I 



MIDSUMMER, 1863. 319 

slioot a siinple-minded soldier-boy who deserts, while I must not touch a 
hair of a wilj agitator who induces him to desert ? This is none the less 
injurious by getting a father, or brother, or friend into a public meeting 
and there working on his feelings till he is persuaded to write to the sol- 
dier-boy that he is fighting in a bad cause, for a wicked administration of 
a contemptible government too weak to arrest and punish him if he shall 
desert. I think that in such a case to silence the agitator and save the 
boy is not only Constitutional, but withal a great mercy." 

So regardful of justice and right were the expressions of the President 
the great mass of the people saw that the exercise of power would never be 
abused by him. 

On Saturday, July 4rth, while the field of Gettysburg was red with the 
blood of those who had died that the Kation might live, and while the 
Confederate troops at Yicksburg were laying down their arms, the Young 
Men's Democratic Association was holding a meeting in the Academy of 
Music, ]^ew York, to celebrate the Independence of the United States. 
Thousands of men and women filled the building or thronged the streets 
around it. The bands played "Hail Columbia" and the "Star Spangled 
Banner." Horatio Seymour, Governor of New York, addressed the pp- 
sembly. 

"When I accepted your invitation," he said, "to be present at this 
meeting we were promised the downfall of Yicksburg, the opening of the 
Mississippi Eiver, and the probable capture of the Confederate capital, and 
the exhaustion of the rebellion. By common consent all parties had fixed 
upon this day when the results of the campaign should be known to mark 
out that line of policy which they felt our country should pursue. But, 
in the moment of expected victory, there came the midnight cry for help 
from Pennsylvania to save its despoiled fields from the invading foe, and 
almost within sight of this great commercial metropolis the ships of your 
merchants were burned to the water's edge. ... I stand before you on this 
occasion not as one animated by expected victories, but feeling as all feel 
now within sound of my voice the dread uncertainties of the conflicts 
which rage around us, not alone in Pennsylvania, but along the whole 
course of the Mississippi — contests that are carrying down to bloody 
graves so many of our fellow-countrymen, so many of our friends — that 
is spreading renewed mourning throughout this great, broad land of ours." 

Of the suspension of the habeas corjnis authorized by Congress, Gov- 
ernor Seymour said, " This doctrine of the suspension of the Constitution, 
this doctrine of the suspension of the laws, is unconstitutional, is unsound, 
is unjust, is treasonable." 



320 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

Xo allusion to Gettysburg, no cheer for the victory achieved, from ora- 
tor or audience. 

Said Mr. Ellsworth, of Connecticut, another speaker, " When Ireland 
revolted from her long and hateful union with England, what happened ? 
Bi'itish bayonets crossed the Channel and extinguished in blood the hopes 
of Irish independence. We have no such jDower in our country to engage 
in the wholesale slaughter of our fellow-citizens. Neither have we the 
power to conscript them against their will. ... As the States came volun- 
tarily into the Union, you cannot compel them to remain in the Union by 
force of arms." 

At the same hour, amid the hills of New Hampshire, at the State capi- 
tal, tliere was a great Democratic convention. Upon the banners borne in 
the j^rocession were these sentiments : " Peace, Compromise, and Union ;" 
'" Eesistance to tyrants is obedience to God." 

Franklin Pierce, ex-President of the United States, was president of 
the convention. " Do we not know," he said, " that the cause of our 
calamities is the vicious intermeddling of too many of the citizens of the 
Northern States with the Constitutional rights of the Southern States ? . . . 
Here in the loyal States the mailed hand of military usurpation strikes 
down the liberties of the people, and its foot tramples a desecrated consti- 
tution. . . . You or I myself may be the next victim of unconstitutional, 
arbitrary, irresponsible power; but we are free now, and we resolve to live, 
or, if need be, die as such. . . .We will build up a great mausoleum of hearts 
to which men who yearn for liberty in after-years, with bowed heads and 
reverently, will resort as Christian pilgrims to the sacred shrines of the 
Holy Land." 

Loyal men and women were at a loss to understand the exact meaning 
of the rhetoric of ex-President Pierce, but they fully comprehended the at- 
titude of a political party which, on the anniversary of the Independence 
of the United States — with the newspaper of the morning announcing the 
result of the great battle, and setting forth the devotion and sacrifice of 
their fellow-citizens, the pouring out of life for a united country — had no 
cheer to give for the crowning victory of the war, no jDraise for the valor of 
the living, no eulogy for the heroic dead ; which resolved that the war was 
a failure, demanded compromise and peace, declared its determination to 
resist the suspension of the writ of Juibeas corpus^ and yet with many 
high-sounding ^Yords protested its allegiance to the Constitution and the 
Laiion. " Charity Grimes" attended the convention, and after listening to 
the resolutions, prepared a series of her own : 



MIDSUMMER, 1863. 321 

^'Resolved, That Lincoln's a usurper — 
An awful skeery wun at tbat. 
He sball not lead us wun step further 
Than we've a mind to go — that's flat! 
We love the Government of the Nation, 
But we go agin its administrashun. 

" Eesoh-ed,We will rekord tlie story 
Thet in this war we've acted wust. 
It's true the Saouth fired on 'Old Glory;' 
But didn't we go hoist it fust? 
We might have missed the war's mischances 
Ef we had hoisted olive branches. 

"Therefore we form a resolushun 
To make all Lincoln's orders void — 
To put his ginerals to konfushon 
So that our own sha'n't be annoyed, 
And fortify our strong position 
By firing guns on abolition. 

" We'll grasp the fiery Southern cross, 
And bid such folks as Butler bear it; 
We'll kover aour defeat and loss 
With treason's garb (naow Davis wears it). 
We skorn deceit, detest hypockracy. 
JMake way thure for the Peace Dimraockrasayl"0 

Hating tlie negro, opposed to the emancipation of tlie slaves and their 
employment as soldiers, carried away by political prejudice and party 
zeal, the men composing the Peace Democracy, blind to the intentions of 
the conspirators who were attempting by force of arms to destroy the 
Union and subvert the Constitution, arrayed themselves against those who 
were giving their lives to sustain it. 

On March 3d, Congress had authorized a draft for three hundred thou- 
sand men. jSTo volunteers were coming forward to fill up the ranks deci- 
mated by battle or disease. If the country was to be saved, men must be 
impressed into military service. Money was needed as well as men, 
and, w^isely or unwisely, the condition was attached that a man tnight 
be exempted upon the payment of three hundred dollars. The Peace 
Democrats were opposed to the draft. The Copperheads denounced it in 
bitter language, and said that it was the " rich man's war, but the poor 
man's fight ;" meaning that those who were making money by the war 
could escape the draft, while the poor man, who could not get three hun- 
21 



322 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

dred dollars, must leave home and expose himself in battle. The Knights 
of the Golden Circle in Indiana and Illinois counselled resistance to the 
draft. They sent agents to other States to organize the disaffected. Thej 
were angry when the news from Gettysburg came flashing over the wires. 
The drafting was to begin July 11th. Daring the preceding week Gov- 
ernor Seymour had been informed that a conspiracy was being organized 
to resist it, bat it was regarded as an improbable story. (°) There was no 
disturbance on Saturday, the lirst day of the drafting; but down in the 
cellars and up in the attics of the rickety tenement-houses, through San- 
day, the conspirators were at work. 

Monday morning came, and people on their way to business saw a 
crowd armed with clubs, old muskets, and rusty swords following a man 
who was beating a copper pan and marching towards the Provost-marshars 
office, where the drafting was going on. Suddenly stones came crashing 
through the windows, wounding the men conducting the drafting, who 
fled from the hoase. The mob rushed in, destroyed the furniture, tum- 
bled it out-of-doors, and set the building on Are. The steam fire-engines 
came, but the rioters cut the hose, and the building and two others were 
burned. A great crowd gathered ; thousands of infuriated men and wom- 
en, armed with picks, shovels, pokers, crow-bars, and clubs, attacked the 
police, knocking them down, and seizing inoffensive citizens with the in- 
tention of hanging them. AVhile the Provost-marshars office was in flames, 
a man with large whiskers, heavy mustache, in a blue coat, light vest, and 
striped trousers, climbed upon the roof of a shanty, '' I am from Virginia," 
he said ; " you have begun nobly, but I'll tell you wliat I want, and Avhat 
you must do. You must organize, appoint leaders, and crush this abolition 
draft. If you don't find anybody else to lead you, I will. Lincoln is 
worse than Nero or Caligula." The great crowd yelled their approval, 
and started to carry out tlie work of destruction. On Lexington Avenue 
they came to a fine residence, which some one said belonged to Horace 
Greeley, editor of the Tribune. They smashed the windows, broke down 
the doors, threw out the elegant chairs, marble tables, mirrors, beautiful 
books, and fine paintings, the red-faced women and blear-eyed men carry- 
ing off whatever suited them ; then they set the building on fire, and danced 
with savage glee and hideous yells as the flames curled through the roonas. 
The mob went to the Bull's Head Tavern to obtain rum, but the landlord 
had closed his door. The locks and bolts gave way before their pounding, 
and then they helped themselves to liquors and choicest wines, smashed 
the furniture, and left the building a wreck. 

They regarded the negro as the cause of the war. If there had been no 



MIDSUMMEE, 1863. 325 

negroes there would have been no draft. They would have their revenge. 
On Lexington Avenue stood an asylum for colored children who had no 
father or mother to care for them. With a yell the mob rushed to the 
building, broke down the doors, seized the furniture, carried it off, and set 
the building on lire, then chased the negroes through the streets, hung 




HANGING A NEGRO. 



them upon the trees^ kindled fires beneath the swaying bodies, and danced 
in glee as they beheld the contortions of the dying men. Between twenty 
and thirty colored men were beaten, shot, or hung. The mob was kind- 
ly disposed towards General McClellan, visiting his house and giving 
cheers ; but he was in New Jersey, and could not respond to their calls. 
Their next visit was to the house of Judge Barnard, who was a Peace 



326 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

Democrat, who made a speech and said "that the conscription was uncon 
stitutional and an act of despotism on the part of Abraham Lincohi." 

"The Tribune!''^ next shouted the mob.('°) A great body of police 
had gathered to protect tlie office of that newspaper. Stones were thrown, 
but the policemen's clubs came down upon the skulls of the rioters. Scald- 
ing water was poured upon them, and thej were beaten back. Other 
buildings were burned, but rain began to fall, and the rioters, well satis- 
fied with what they had done, rested for the night and made preparations 
for the morrow. 

It was an opportune moment for them to carry out their work of de- 
struction, for Governor Seymour, in compliance with the requisition of 
President Lincoln, had sent all the militia — thirteen regiments — to Penn- 
sylvania to resist the invasion of the Confederates. The outbreak had 
come as suddenly as the rising of a whirlwind on a calm summer day, and 
the police were unprepared. 

In the armory on Twenty-first Street was a large quantity of ammuni- 
tion and many musk3ts, guarded by forty policemen. The mob burst 
open the door, but the leader went down with a bullet through his heart. 
Other rioters fell ; then the police, instead of maintaining the fight, fled, 
and the mob seized the guns and ammunition, and set the building on 
fire. 

The rioters knocked down Colonel O'Brien, of the Eleventh New York 
Volunteers, and dragged him by a rope tlirough the mud till life was ex- 
tinct. Riots were going on in a dozen places at once — no longer against 
the draft, but for robbery and plunder. Soldiers who had been discharged 
from the army, others who were at home on furlough, together with small 
bodies of troops- — five hundred in all — aided the police. All business 
stopped ; uo horse-cars ran ; merchants and bankers volunteered to act as 
policemen. Wherever a mob was encountered it was charged upon and 
put to flight. But the wild beast having tasted fresh blood thirsts for 
more, and the rioters, having enjoj'ed their unbridled license, when put 
down in one place congregated in another. 

Governor Seymour came from Albanj^ and made an unfortunate speech 
to the multitude, addressing them as " My friends." He counselled obe- 
dience to the laws, but expressed his belief that the conscri23tion was ille- 
gal, and announced his determination to have it tested in the courts. lie 
intended and desired to allay passion, and put a stop to the rioting by 
pleasant words, but he soon discovered that men who were bent on plun- 
der would not desist at the request of the governor of the State. 

'Nearly all the rioters were Irish men and women. Archbishop Hughes 



MIDSUMMER, 1863. 



327 



published through the newspapers a request that they should visit him at 
his residence. A large crowd gathered, and he gave them good advice. 
It was not his speech but bullets which put an end to the rioting.' 
While he was addressing them the [New York Seventh Regiment and 
the police were having a battle with the real rioters, clearing the houses 
in which they had taken refuge, and putting an end to their plundering. 
In all, more than one thousand were killed, as estimated by the police. 
Only three policemen were killed, but many had been seriously injured. 




DRAGGING COLONEL O BKIEN S BODY. 



While this was going on in New York those in Boston who were ready 
to resist the draft broke open a gun-shop, and obtained one Imndred guns 
and seventy-five pistols. They attempted to break into another shop, but 
were driven by the police. Governor Andrew and Mayor Lincoln saw 
that there was trouble ahead, and prepared for it. Two regiments were 
ordered under arms, and two cannon placed in the armory on Coo|)er 
Street, commanded by Captain Jones, wdio loaded them with canister, 
and who said to the gathering rioters that he should fire upon them if they 
attempted to enter. 



328 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



Evening came, and the mob began to tlirow stones and beat tlie doors. 
There was one flash, and the canister balls cut a path through the crowd, 
ending the riot. 

While the rioting was going on in New York, Gen. Jo])n Morgan, of 
Kentucky, who commanded a division of cavalry in Bragg's army, was 
carrying out a bold plan. General Rosecrans was at Murfreesboro, where 




THE RIOTERS AND THE NEW YORK SEVENTH REGIMENT. 



he had remained after the battle of Stone River confronting Bragg, who 
was at Tullahoma. General Burnside was at Cincinnati, preparing to march 
an army across Kentucky to East Tennessee. General Bragg detailed Mor- 
gan to make a raid in rear of Rosecrans, to destroy the railroads, burn 
bridges, and tlireaten Louisville, which he thought would deter Burnside 
from making his contemplated movement. Morgan wanted to do more 
than this. He wished to make a sensation, and proposed to Bragg to reach 
the Ohio River, cross into Indiana, ride northward towards Indianapolis, 
eastward towards Cincinnati, threaten Hamilton, Columbus, and other large 
towns, destroy the railroads, and recross into East Kentucky or West Vir- 
ginia. Bragg would not consent to his attempting such a raid, but gave 



MIDSUMMER, 1863. 



329 



him liberty to go where he pleased in Kentucky, where he would be at 
liome, and where he would find many friends. Morgan deliberately deter- 
mined to carry out his own plan and sent scouts to examine the fords of 
the upper 01iio.(") Just what he intended to accomplish, other than the 
execution of a bold, audacious movement, is not phiin. 

On the 2d of July, while the battle was raging around Little Round 
Top at Gettysburg, Morgan was crossing the Cumberland Riv^er, in Ken- 
tucky, at Burkesville, moving toM'ards Columbia with twenty-five hundred 
men, all of tliem bold riders and mounted on good horses. He eluded the 
Union cavalry under General Judah. At Green River he had a skirmish 
with a Michigan regiment, but avoided a battle, reached Lebanon, where 
he came suddenly upon three regiments of Union infantry, captured nearly 
all, pressed on till within thirty miles of Louisville, capturing a train on 
the raih'oad, reached the Ohio River, seized two steamboats, and on the 




MORGAN S RAIDERS. 



evening of the 8tli ferried his troops to the Lidiana shore. The governors 
of Indiana and Ohio proclaimed martial law, but the authorities, believing 
that Morgan would recross below Cincinnati, sent troops in the wrong 
direction. A body of Union cavalry under General Hobson was following 
Morgan, but the Confederates were always a day's ride in advance, making 
long marches, seizing fresh horses, and plundering the people, making no 
distinction between L^nion men and Peace Democrats. They broke open 
stores and helped themselves to whatever pleased their fancy — webs of 
21— 



330 MAKCHING TO VICTORY. 

cloth, ladies' bonnets, dry -goods, hardware, bird-cages, boots, shoes, cloth- 
ing, table-cloths, blankets — carrying them a while, then tossing them aside 
as children throw away their toys when tired of them. Not till Morgan 
had passed to the eastward of Cincinnati did the authorities comprehend 
his intentions ; but the militia and troops sent out were closing around 
him. The light-draft gunboats which patrolled the river made their way 
to the possible crossings. He reached the river at Portland, but found 
the Union troops upon him. There was a battle, a charge by the Union 
forces in which a large number of Confederates were captured. Morgan, 
with nine hundred, reached the river once more twenty miles farther up, 
but a gunboat prevented him from crossing. On the 26tli, with every 
avenue of escape closed, his men worn down by continuous riding, want 
of sleep and rest, and surrounded by the enemy, they surrendered, and the 
twenty-five hundred were lost to General Bragg. 

Going now across the Atlantic, we see, on the 4th of July, while 
General Lee is preparing to leave the field of Gettysburg, an iron-clad 
ship sliding into the water of the river Mersey, at Birkenhead, built by 
Messrs. Laird for the Confederate Government, and which \vill in a few 
weeks be ready for sea, unless prevented, cross the Atlantic, and scatter 
the blockading fleet at Wilmington or Charleston. 

Mr. Mason, on Sunday, July 10th, wrote to Mr. Benjamin, Confederate 
Secretary of State : 

" Our reports are up to July 1st. They would seem to indicate that 
Lee is perfectly master of the field of his operations, both in Maryland 
and Pennsylvania, and that Washington must speedily fall, with Baltimore, 
into his possession. Should this be realized before Parliament adjourns, 
I do not think the ministry will hold out against recognition. If they did 
the House of Commons would override them."('^) 

It was while General Buford was taking possession of Seminary Ridge, 
at Gettysburg, on the night of June 30th, that Boebuck's motion for the 
recognition of the Confederacy had been debated, but no action taken. 

What effect the news of the victory at Gettysburg and the surrender 
had upon the people of Great Britain who sympathized with the Confed- 
eracy is set forth by one of the Confederate agents in London : 

" The news of the check sustained by our forces at Gettysburg, 
coupled with the reported fall of Yicksburg, was so unexpected as to 
spread very general dismay, not only among the active sympathizers with 
our cause, but even among those who take merely a selfish interest in thej 
great struggle. The disappointment was proportionate to the confidence 



MIDSUMMER, 1863. 33], 

which had come to be generally entertained that our arms were about to 
achieve the crowning triumph of peace. . . . The news received last night 
(July 22d) has somewhat reassured the shaken confidence in our ultimate 
success, but all is still perplexity, surprise, and alarm. "('^) 

Another Confederate wrote : 

" The unexpected reverses to our arms must, of course, essentially mod- 
ify our situation abroad as well as our action in relation to it. I cannot 
disguise from you the deep discouragement inflicted on our friends by so 
sudden a change of position from invading conquerors to hard-pressed de- 
fenders in their own stronghold, which was the attitude suddenly given 
to the belligerents two weeks ago (June 30th), when all Europe w^atched 
for the triumphant entry of General Lee into the cit}^ of Washington. 
Many among ourselves held the same high hope, and had no apprehen- 
sions for Vicksburg. You may readily imagine the force of the recoil 
from two such stunning blows received at the same time without warn-, 
ing or preparation. The public sentiment, both in England and France, 
recoiled from blind confidence in our immediate success to a belief in 
the success of the N^orth and its scheme of subjugation. The Confed- 
erate loan, which is our barometer, fell at once twenty per cent, below 
par.'X'^) 

Mr. Mason, who, on June 30th, in imagination beheld General Lee 
marching triumphantly into Washington and the British Parliament rec- 
ognizing the Confederacy, saw things under a different light when he 
penned his next letter to the Confederate Secretary of State : 

" The hopes and expectations of our friends in Europe," he wrote, 
" have been much depressed by the late intelligence from the South, one 
marked effect of which has been on the loan, quoted yesterday, August 
5th, as low as thirty per cent, discount. The fortunes of the late loan 
will preclude any other for the present."('^) 

From Paris Mr. Slidell sent this to Mr. Benjamin : 

" Since my last we have the unpleasant intelligence of the retreat of 
General Lee across the Potomac and the surrender of Vicksburg and Port 
Hudson. For the latter event we were not prepared, and, as you may 
suppose, they cannot fail to exercise an unfavorable influence on the ques- 
tion of recognition. "('°) 

I have said that when Vincent's brigade and Hazlett's battery, on the 
evening of June 2d, were holding Little Round Top, when McGilvery's 
guns were flaming along Cemetery Ridge, when Willard's brigade and 
the First Minnesota Regiment advanced into the meadow by Codori's 
house in the twilight of that eventful day, it w^as the hour which marked 



332 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

the liigli tide of the Confederacy ; that on the afternoon of the following 
day, when all that was left of Pickett's division drifted back over those 
fields, it was the beginning of the ebb-tide. Of the decisiveness of that 
conflict this the estimate of an English historian : 

" Mr. Adams was satisfied that the fate of Mr. Roebuck's motion would 
depend on the military events of a few days. He was right. The motion 
was never pressed to a decision ; for during its progress there came at one 
moment the news that General Grant had taken Yicksburg, on the Missis- 
sippi, and that General Meade had defeated General Lee at Gettysburg, 
and put an end to all thought of a Southern invasion. The news at first 
was received with resolute incredulity in London by the advocates and 
partisans of the South. In some of the clubs there was positive indigna- 
tion that such things should be reported. The outburst of wrath was nat- 
ural. That was the turning-point of the war, although not many saw it. 
The South never had a chance after that liour."(") 

So Gettysburg and Vicksburg together became pivotal points in the 
history of our country and in the liistory of human affairs. 



NOTES TO CHAPTER XV. 

( 1) Richmond Examiner, July 25, 1863 

( ') Idem, July 9, 1863. 

( ^) Richmond Sentinel, July 18, 1863. 

( ■*) Charleston Mercury, July 24, 1863. 

( 5) Demoiid Address, Alumui Williams College, 1865. 

( «) Idem. 

( ') Rev. Mr. Auley, Report of Christian Association, Chicago, 1865. 

( «) Ilarpefs Weekly, July 25, 1863. 

( 9) New York Herald. July 6, 1863. 

('0) Idem, July 14, 1863. 

(") Duke, " History of Morgan's Cavalry," pp. 409, 411, 429. 

(1^) Mason to Benjamin, unpublished papers (War Department), July 23. 1863. 

('^) Hotze to Benjamin, unpublished papers (War Department), July 23, 1863. 

(i<) Idem, August 3, 1863. 

('*) Mason to Benjamin, unpublished papers (War Department), August 5th, 1863. 

('«) Slidell to Benjamin, unpublished papers (War Department), August 5th, 1863. 

('■') Justin McCarthy, " History of Our Own Times," vol. iii., p. 327. 



ASSAULT ON FORT WAGNER. 



333 



CHAPTER XYI. 

ASSAULT ON FORT WAGNER. 

FROM Morris Island, commanding the main channel leading into 
Charleston harhor, had been fired the first hostile shot in the war — 
1861. It turned back the Star of the West, which was carrying provisions 
to the beleaguered garrison of Sumter. Slave-gangs threw up the breast- 
works of the batteries which had rained solid shot and shells upon Sumter, 
inaugurating tlie conflict between the Confederate and the loyal States. 
Daring 1862 other gangs of slaves had constructed a formidable fortifica- 
tion amid the sand-hills— Fort Wagner, mounted with heavy guns, planned 
to prevent anj^ Union force from gaining a position on the island, from 
which Union cannon in turn could rain their iron bolts upon Sumter. 




FORT WAGNER, FROM THE CHANNEL. 



Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore, who had battered down Fort Pulaski, guard- 
ing the entrance to Savannah River, had been appointed by President 
Lincoln to command the department. He was a skilful engineer. He 
was in possession of Folly Island, a long and narrow range of sand-hills, 
separated from Morris Island by Light-house Inlet, leading inland to a 
series of intricate water-wavs. South of Follv Island was Stono River. 



334 MAKCHING TO VICTORY. 

Between Stono Inlet and the intricate water-ways is James Island, on 
which tlie Confederates had erected strong earthworks. Fort Wagner was 
half a mile south of Cnraming's Point, the northern end of Morris Island, 
and three miles north of Light-house Inlet. 

General Gillmore came to the conclusion that if he could get posses- 
sion of the southern end of Morris Island he might in time possibly get 
possession of Fort Wagner, which was built of earth and mounted ten 
guns ; but there were earthworks at the southern end of the island which 
must first be captured. 

A lookout tower was erected, from the toj) of which General Gillmore 
surveyed Morris Island. He decided to get possession of tlie low^er end 
of it, then carry AVagner by assault if possible ; but in case of failure he 
would begin siege operations. After gaining it he would erect batteries, 
and assail Sumter and bombard Charleston. Public sentiment in the 
North demanded that there should be no cessation of effort till the old 
flag should wave once more over Sumter. In a military point of view, it 
was not a wise expenditure of strength ; but in obedience to public senti- 
ment the operations began. 

All the preliminary labor was done in secret. Soldiers were at work 
in the night with shovels building breastworks behind a piece of woods, 
wholly concealed from the Confederates. The artillerymen dragged heavy 
guns through the sand, and placed them in position. A road was cut 
through the woods, brush laid along a path-way and covered with earth, 
that no rumbling of cannon-wheels might reach the ears of the enemy. 

The troops under General Gillmore erected two siege-batteries in sev- 
enteen days, one twelve hundred yards and the other twenty-two hundred 
yards from the Confederate batteries, and had forty-seven guns and mor- 
tars in position to open fire. In Folly River were all the boats General 
Gillmore could obtain — enough to carry General Strong's brigade, which 
was to land on Morris Island, while General Terry was to make a demon- 
stration upon James Island. 

On the afternoon of the 9tli Strong's brigade marched to the boats, 
and as soon as it was dark rowed up Folly River to the entrance of Light- 
house Creek. The reeds and grasses along the marshes were so tall and 
rank that no Confederate saw them. No word was spoken. The senti- 
nels and pickets heard only the cry of the sea-fowl. It was a night of 
painful silence to the soldiers sitting in the boats waiting for the dawn of 
day, for they were within easy range of a battery of eight guns and three 
mortars. Daylight was streaming up the east when, greatly to the sur- 
prise of the Confederates holding the batteries at the lower end of Morris 



=tr=:* 




ASSAULT ON FORT WAGNER. 337 

Island, the Union cannon on Follj^ Island opened fire. A few moments 
later came the roar of the great guns of four monitors which had crossed 
Charleston bar and taken position to enfilade the Confederate batteries. 
It was half-past six when General Strong saw a signal waved from the 
Union lines, and then the oars dipped the water and the boats moved 
on. The Confederates discovered them and opened fire. The boats soon 
grounded on the mud-flats. 

" Come on !" shouted General Strong. With him men of the Sixth 
Connecticut leaped out.(') The commander lost a boot in the mud, but 
not stopping to regain it, led the men, with only a stocking on one foot, 
charging upon the Confederate rifle-pits. The other regiments landed, 
formed, and rushed upon the batteries, capturing twelve guns, one hundred 
prisoners, and all the camjD equipage. By ten o'clock General Gill more 
w^as in possession of the lower end of the island. 

Fort Wagner extended from the sea-beach across the island to the 
marshes of Vincent's Creek, a distance of six hundred feet. It had two 
bastions, one on the sea-side, with two faces, one fronting the sea, to meet 
the fire of the ships, the other fronting the land approach. The second 
bastion was on the west side — both provided with shelter for the garrison 
from the bombs fired by the mortar-boats. It was a strong fortress, npon 
which great labor had been expended by slaves, the Confederates well 
comprehending that so long as they could hold it General Gillmore would 
not be able to get at Fort Sumter. 

There was consternation in Charleston over the information tliat the 
Union troops had effected a lodgment on Morris Island. 

" The fall of Fort Wagner," said one of the Charleston newspapers, 
"ends in the fall of Charleston. Fort Sumter, like Fort Wagner, will 
then be assailable by land and sea."r) 

The governor of the State issued a call to the planters to send their 
slaves to construct additional fortifications, making earnest personal aj)- 
peals to them. 

The Mayor of Charleston issued a jjroclamation calling upon the citi- 
zens " to suspend business till the safety of the city was assured," and 
ordered that all male negroes and mulattoes between the ages of eighteen 
and sixty be conscripted for work on the fortifications.^ 

General Gillmore knew nothing of the strength of Wagner, how for- 
midable a fortress it was, that there were thirteen guns of large size mostly 
for firing shells and grape and canister. He did not know that the ditch 
in front was waist-deep with water kept there by a gate which opened 
when the tide came in and closed when it began to go out. Nor did he 
22 



338 MAKCHING TO VICTORY. 

know that sharpened stakes were driven into the sand for chevaux-de- 
frise — that planks with iron spikes were laid along the glacis of the fort. 
Not knowing how strong it was, he selected only three regiments to 
assault it. The sun was rising on the morning of the 11th when the 
Seventh Connecticut, followed by the Ninth Maine and the Seventy-sixth 
Pennsylvania, went upon the double-quick across the sand, driving in the 
Confederate pickets. They reached the ditch, tiring no volley, but charg- 
ing with the bayonet up the slope of the work, only to be cut to pieces 
and driven back, with a loss of more than three hundred, while the Con- 
federate loss was scarcely a dozen. It was a blind assault, attempted with- 
out knowledge of the strength of the fort or tlie garrison within it — on 
that morning exceeding twelve hundred. 

On the 16tli General Terry made an assault upon the works on James 
Island, but was repulsed, and General Gilhnore ordered him to join Gen- 
eral Stronof on Morris Island. An arrano-ement was made with the fleet 
for a combined bombardment of Wagner, to dismount its guns and demor- 
alize the garrison. 

It was nearly eight o'clock on the morning of July 18th when the 
monitors, the New Ironsides, and several gunboats steamed slowly up the 
channel and opened fire. The vessels moved in a circle, thus lessening 
the chances of being injured. The land batteries and mortars opened at 
the same time. The thunder of the cannonade was heard at Edgefield, 
one hundred and thirty miles distant. At noon the monitors ceased firing 
that the men might rest. Inside the iron turrets the heat on that mid- 
summer day, from the sun and the firing, was very exhausting ; but after 
an hour's rest the men sprang once more to the guns. Upon the house- 
tops and in the belfries of the churches were the people of Charleston — 
men and women — watching the distant spectacle. This the scene as pict- 
ured by one of the citizens : 

"Gray old Sumter lay like a half-aroused monster midway the scene, 
only occasionally speaking his part in the angry dialogue. Far in the 
distance lay the blockaders, taking no part in the fray. To the right, on 
Cumming's Point, was a little mound of earth, and every now and then we 
could see a band of artillerists around the guns, a volume of smoke, and 
far to the right exploding in the vicinity of the enemy's batteries its well- 
aimed shells. Still to the right of this was Wagner, clustered above which, 
now bursting high in air, now striking the sides of the work, and now 
plunging through the sand on the beach and throwing up a pillar of earth, 
or dashing into the marsh and ricochetting across the water, could be seen 
the quickly succeeding shells and round-shot of the enemy's guns abreast 



ASSAULT ON FORT WAGNER. 



341 



of "Wagner. Still farther to tlie right, but concealed from view by the 
trees on James Island, were the land batteries of the enemy, whose loca- 
tion we only knew by the heavy puffs of smoke that shot suddenly into 
the air, then drifted away."(*) 

General Gillraore, General Seymour, and General Strong, all three 
believed that the fort could be successfully assaulted ; that the bombard- 
ment had demoralized the Confederates, and probably dismounted most 
of the cannon. Colonel Putnam did not think so, but that the Confed- 
erates had been protected in their bomb-proof shelter; that to make 
the attack at night, as proposed, would end in disaster. In the dark- 




MORTAR BATTERY BEFORE WAGNER. 

Fiom a sketch of the time. 



ness the troops would become confused by the obstacles they would en- 
counter and the fire that would be poured upon them, and they would not 
be able to distinguish friend from foe. The weight of opinion was against 
him. " We are going into Wagner like a flock of sheep," he said.(^) Who 
should lead ? What regiment should be selected first to meet the fiery 
storm ? There were three brigades — General Strong's, General Steven- 
son's, and Colonel Putnam's — thirteen regiments. General Strong's bri- 
gade was composed of the Sixth Connecticut, Forty-eighth New York, 
Third New Hampshire, Ninth Maine, and Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania. It 
was at the head of the column on the sea-beach. Behind it stood Put- 
nam's brigade — the Seventh New Hampshire, One Hundredth New York, 
Sixty-second and Sixty-seventh Ohio. Stevenson's brigade was to be held 



342 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 




COL. ROBERT G. SHAW. 



in reserve. It was past six o'clock. Tlie mortars and the frigate New 
Ironsides were still sending their shells into tlie fort. The soldiers saw 
a long column of men marcliing across the sand-hills from the west, with 
the Stars and Stripes flying above them, and the white flag of the State of 
Massachusetts, with its seal of an Indian and an out-stretched arm grasping 
a sword, bearing the legend, ^^Ense petit placidam sub lihertate quietem''^ 
— seeking calm peace by the sword. 

It was the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, a regiment of colored soldiers 
recruited in Boston, commanded by Col. Robert G. Shaw, who had been 



ASSAULT ON FORT WAGNER. 343 

selected by Governor Andrew of that State to command tliis first regi- 
ment of colored troops, regularly authorized by the Secretary of War 
from a State east of the Mississippi. I saw the i*egiment upon Boston 
Common when it received its colors from the hand of the governor. It 
was on a beautiful afternoon in May. Thousands of people had gathered 
to see them — some to laugh and sneer, others to respect and applaud. 
Those who sneered predicted that they never would fight a battle, but 
would scatter like sheep at the sound of the first hostile shot; those who 
applauded hoped, possibly believed, that they would be brave and manly 
in battle. 

" I know not," said Governor Andrew, as he placed the colors of the 
State in their keeping, "when in all human history to any one thousand 
men in arms there has been given a work so proud, so precious, so full of 
hope and glory as the work conmiitted to you." 

Some of them had been slaves, sold on the auction-block. The Supreme 
Court of the United States, through Chief-justice lloger B. Taney, before 
the war, had declared that the son of a slave mother could not be a citizen, 
and therefore had no rights under the laws. The Peace Democrats hated 
them because they were negroes. The majority of the people in the 
Korthern States had been prejudiced against them. For them there was 
110 seat in the upholstered car of a railroad ; no place at the public table 
of a hotel ; no bed except in the loft of a tavern-stable or the lumber- 
room of a garret ; for them no place in church except in some far-off 
seat in the gallery. So intense the prejudice that many ofiicers objected 
to their employment as soldiers. Politicians and "Copperheads" were 
doing their utmost to arouse hostility to the colored race. Many peo- 
ple who had favored the war turned against President Lincoln because 
he had consented to their employment as soldiers. 

As representatives of a despised race, a great hour had come to this 
regiment. It had been in General Terry's command, and the men had 
exhibited in some degree their soldier-like qualities on June 10th, when 
attacked by a large force of Confederates, holding them in check, and 
saving the Tenth Connecticut from capture. They had been ordered to 
Morris Island, had been marching all day across the sands of Folly Island, 
in the sweltering heat, without rations. They reached the sea-beach — six 
hundred of them — in the twilight of the sultry summer evening. 

General Seymour was to conduct the assault, and decided that they 
should lead. These his reasons: "It was in every respect as efticient as 
any other body of men ; and as it was one of the strongest and best offi- 
cered^ there seemed to be no good reason why it should not be selected for 



344 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

tlie advance. . This point was decided by General Strong and myself." Of 
officers there were Colonel Shaw, Lieutenant-colonel Hallowell, and Adju- 
tant James, seven captains and twelve lieutenants, also tlie surgeon and 
quartermaster. 

During the week after the first assault tlie Confederates in Wagner 
had been hard at work to make the fort still stronger. The garrison had 
been increased to seventeen hundred men under General Taliaferro, who 
had assigned each company to its appointed position, and who had drilled 
them to run helter-skelter from the bomb-proof, each man to his place along 
the breastworks, and to be ready in a moment after a given signal to repel 
an attacking force. In all, there were thirteen large cannon and six pieces 
of field artillery — howitzers which could be loaded and fired rapidly, and 
placed to sweep the ditch outside the fort with grape and canister. While 
the bombardment was going on the Confederates were beneath their bomb- 
proof. 

The men of the Fifty- fourth Massachusetts were resting after their 
tiresome march. Officers were riding here and there carrying orders. Gen- 
eral Strong, in full uniform, came to the regiment and informed the sol- 
diers that they were to have the honor of leading the charge. Were they 
ready to do so ? " We are ready," they replied, and at the word of com- 
mand dressed their raidvs as if upon parade. 

It is not clear just what General Seymour's plans were in regard to 
the attack. There was the fort ; its guns silent, the earthworks torn by 
the bombardment. Manifestly an assaulting column nnist be strong enough, 
to remove the obstructions in front, cross the ditch, climb the parapet, and 
overwhelm those witliin. It was reasonable to suppose that this could not 
be accomplished by a single regiment, and that other troops should be 
close at hand to swarin over the works and outnumber the Confederates. 
Whatever was to be done must be accomplished at once ; it must be an as- 
sault so aggressive and powerful — a blow given with such force that noth- 
ing could stand before it. Unless so made, it ought not to be attempted. 
It was known that there was a chevaux-cle-frise, that there was a line of 
stakes along the beach to obstruct an advancing column ; and it was rea- 
sonable to suppose that unless men were selected to remove the obstacles 
tlie column would be thrown into confusion ; but no details were made to 
do the work of pioneers. 

How should the attack be made — with loaded muskets or witli tlie 
bayonet alone ? When Anthony Wayne stormed Stony Point, on the Hud- 
son, during the Revolutionary War, at night, his troops marched with un- 
loaded muskets. He would have no shooting of his own men by mistake 



ASSAULT ON FORT WAGNER. 345 

in tlie darkness. The bayonet alone won tlie victory. Instead of this, tlie 
colnmns of men in front of Wagner stood witii loaded muskets. Behind 
the Fifty -fourth Massachusetts were the Sixth Connecticut, then the 
Ninth Maine, Forty-eighth New York, and Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania, 
and then Putnam's brigade. 

The sun had gone down. The monitors were still firing. Sumter was 
sending its shells down the beach upon the dark outline of men. A thun- 
der-storm was rising landward — the lightning illumining all the western 
landscape, and the thunder rolling far away. Seaward, a thick haze was 
settling over the harbor, through which could be dindy seen the vessels of 
the blockading fleet rising and falling upon the long and heavy swells of 
the ocean. At a signal the monitors ceased their fire, and the Union bat- 
teries became suddenly silent. General Strong, in full uniform, rides in 
front of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, and addresses them briefly ; (') their 
beloved Colonel Shaw walks along the lines as calmly as upon parade. 
Three-fourths of a mile away, dimly seen in the gathering darkness, floats 
the Confederate flag. 

"Attention!" The men who have been sold as slaves stand erect. 
" Forward !" The commander who speaks the word is in advance, and sets 
his face towards Wagner. He will not ask them to go where he is not 
ready to lead ; they are willing to follow wherever he may go. The way 
narrows as they advance, till the men on the right are crowded down upon 
the beach and walk in the white-fringed ripples. 

" We shall take the fort, or die !" Tiiese are the parting words of 
Colonel Shaw to his next in command, Lieutenant-colonel Hallowell. 

The regiment moves on alone, those of Strong's and Putnam's brigades 
remaining in colnmns on the beach, awaiting orders from General Sej^- 
raour.(*) Why they were thus held, why the colored troops were sent for- 
ward alone, has never been explained. AVhy six hundred men should have 
been ordered to assault a fortress held hj seventeen hundred, or what 
General Seymour intended by such a plan of action, is not known. In 
the first assault three regiments had been hurled back, but the men move 
on, little knowing how terrible a storm is to burst upon them. Suddenly 
the embrasures of Wagner are sheets of flame, and a line of light runs 
along the para^Dct. The air is thick with grape and canister and musket- 
balls. Lieutenant-colonel Hallowell, Captain W^illard, and Adjutant James 
go down, and Lieutenant Thomas is whirled to the ground by a shot 
through the shoulder.(°) 

On through the gloom and deadly tempest rush the soldiers, following 
their beloved commander; down into the moat, through the water, up the 



346 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

glacis of tlie south-eastern bastion, with the enfih^ding cannon and howit- 
zers belching grape and canister into their ranks. By the lightnings of 
heaven and the cannon-flashes the men see their comrades falling. In ad- 
vance of all is Colonel Shaw. He crosses the ditch, followed by the two 
color-bearers. Together they climb the glacis and stand outlined on the 
parapet by the lightnings, Shaw waving his sword. Amid the uproar the 
men hear him shouting, " Come on!" And then the form goes down, and 
the voice is hushed evermore. The color-bearers are still there, and the 
men rush up the glacis and fire into the faces of the Confederates. But 
the struggle on the parapet is soon over. There is no supporting column 
at hand to leap down into the bastion, and by the force of numbers drive 
the Confederates. General Strong's brigade has not started. Sheltered 
in part, the men of tlie Fifty-fourth fire into the embrasures, driving 
the Confederates from the cannon, and they in turn toss grenades and 
lighted shells over the parapet. One member of the Fifty-fourth, with 
his left arm shattered and bleeding, lies in the sand, but with his right 
hand piles his cartridges upon his breast that his comrades may seize them 
and load and fire more rapidly. The color-bearers are shot down, and for 
a moment the colors lie upon the breastwork. The living seize the staves, 
but one of the dead bearers is lying upon his flag, and in the effort to save 
it it is torn from the staff. Sergeant Carney, though wounded, still clings 
to his colors. Colonel, lieutenant-colonel, adjutant, and every captain, ex- 
cepting Captain Emilio, have been killed or wounded. More than one- 
third of the men have fallen. How long it has been, those who partici- 
pated cannot determine. Men live fast at such a moment, when all the 
energy of life is concentrated into a supreme effort. Whether it was half 
an hour or an hour, even those who stood in column on the beach, and 
those who were on the sand-hills a mile away, are not agreed. Those 
who still stood there illumining the darkness by their flashing muskets 
knew that their effort had failed, but they resolutely remained to take part 
in the melee when the supports should come — not their supports. The 
time had gone by for supports to them. Not till only a remnant was 
left — not till the whole aggressive force of the six hundred had been 
wasted — was the order issued for the advance of Strong's brigade. 

" Column forward ! Double quick !" The brigade, in column of com- 
panies, went up the beach — -the Sixth Connecticut leading. This the ac- 
count of one who participated in the assault: 

" When we had gone twelve hundred yards, and the head of the 
column was almost to the ditch, suddenly the parapets were alive with 
men. They yelled, they fired all their muskets and their cannon straight 



ASSAULT ON FORT WAGNEK. 347 

in our faces. It was as if the deepest hell had vomited its hottest fires 
upon you. It was as light as day, and that noble column reeled and 
surged and fell, shot through with grape and canister and shrapnel. Oh, 
it was pitiful ! The air was on fire everywhere, and the fire seemed to 
have voices that now moaned, and now cheered, and now cried with pain. 
The dead and the dying were piled in heaps far up tliat fatal slope ; the 
sea moaned ; tlie thunder muttered in the sky. It grew dark suddenly, and 
the eye of God saw the survivors of that shattered column pushing on tow- 
ards the fort. Here was one, there another ; ten steps away a third — all that 
were left standing of the solid columns that had melted away in the fires; 
but they did not halt, they did not retreat — they pressed on. Those in the 
rear followed them, trampling down their dead and dying comrades, stum- 
bling over the wire entanglements as they rushed in tlie dark towards the 
fort We reached the moat, crossed it. Many fell under the terrible en- 
filades, others impaled their feet on the spikes and blades of steel ; but the 
rest climbed up that first bank, and step by step, with swords drawn and 
bayonets fixed, without the firing of a single shot, without speaking a 
single word, drove the enemy back, captured their guns, their magazines, 
followed them, as they fled in terror across the enclosure, drove them over 
the superior slope, and at last, a mere handful of them — all that remained 
of the fighting brigade — stood triumphant upon the parapets, and the 
strongest bastion of Wagner was taken. Then there rang a great shout of 
victory over the sea."('°) 

The Confederate commander says of the attack : 

" As the assaulting columns came on they were met by the withering 
volleys of McKethan's direct and Gaillard's cross fire, and by the direct 
discharge of the shell-guns, supplemented by the frightful enfilading dis- 
charges of the lighter guns upon the right and left. It was terrible, but 
with unsurpassed gallantry the Federal soldiers breasted the storm and 
rushed onward to the glacis. The Confederates, with the tenacity of 
bull-dogs, and a fierce courage aroused almost to madness by the fright- 
ful inaction to which they had been subjected, poured from the ramparts 
and embrasures sheets of fiame and a tempest of lead and iron. Yet 
their intrepid assailants rushed on like the waves of the sea by whose 
shore they fought. They fell by hundreds, but they pushed on, reeling 
under the fi-ightful blasts that almost blew them to pieces, up to the Con- 
federate bayonets. The south-east bastion was weakly defended, and into 
it a considerable body of the enemy made their way."(") 

Colonel Putnam had been ordered by General Gillmore to remain 
where he was, but he could see the guns fiashing in the darkness, and he 



348 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

knew that General Strong needed assistance, and assumed tlie responsi- 
bility of advancing. 'After a disastrous delay, and without orders,' says 
General Seymour, ' he led his brigade on to assault the south-east angle 
through a destructive fire.' "(") 

The brave young commander reached the ditch, crossed it, and mounted 
the parapet, followed by his men, to fall with a mortal wound. A portion 
of his brigade joined those already in the bastion, but in the darkness a 
portion of the troops fired a volley into Strong's brigade. In the attack 
General Seymour and General Strong were wounded, and every colonel was 
killed or wounded. Men fell by scores on the parapet, to roll back into 
the ditch, already piled with the fallen : some to be strangled in the 
water, others to die of suffocation in the sand. With howitzers pouring 
canister upon them ; with a thousand Confederate muskets sending bullets 
into the huddled mass, the fearful carnage went on. Messengers were 
sent to General Stevenson, commanding the brigade in reserve, to ad- 
vance, but he waited for orders from General Gillmore. 

When at last that brigade advanced it was only to meet the shattered 
remnants drifting back in disorder through the darkness. IS^ot all, for still 
in the bastion were one hundred and forty men, all privates, belonging to 
different regiments, not a commissioned officer among them. How brave- 
ly they held out is narrated by the Confederate commander : 

"The party which had gained access by the salient next the sea could 
not escape. It was certain death to pass the line of concentrated fire which 
swept the face of the work, and they did not attempt it ; but they would 
not surrender, and in despair kept Up a continuous fire upon the main 
body in the fort. The Confederates called for volunteers to dislodge them 
— a summons which was promptly responded to by Major MacDonald, of 
the Fifty-first North Carolina, and by Captain Rion, of the Charleston Bat- 
talion, with the requisite number of men. Rion's company was selected, 
and the gallant Irishman, at the head of his company, dashed at the reck- 
less and insane men who seemed to insist upon immolation. . . . Rion rushed 
at them, but he fell, shot outright, with several of his men, and the rest 
recoiled."(") 

General Beauregard in Charleston had seen from his headquarters the 
flashing of the cannon and musketry, and had sent the Thirty- Second 
Georgia in a steamer to Morris Island. It was a large regiment, and came 
upon the run from Cumming's Point. Even with this fire added to that 
of the garrison, the few Union soldiers still held the bastion, till, seeing that 
no relief was possible, they gave up the struggle and surrendered, after 
maintaining their position four hours. 



ASSAULT ON FORT WAGNER. 349 

Midnight. — The sound of the conflict has died away. The Confeder- 
ates, looking down into the ditch, behold by the lightning-flashes a ghastly 
scene. Fifteen hundred men have been kdled or wounded, and those of 
the living who have not dragged themselves away are piled in a mass be- 
fore them. No other spot on this Western continent has presented a like 
scene of horror or a more heroic struggle. Let us close our ears to the 
wails of the wounded and the groans of the dying. Let darkness hide the 
blood-red water in the moat, and let us hear, instead, in the early hours of 
Sunday morning, coming from that pile of dead and dying, the last words 
of one who has led a religious life, who, with both legs crushed and his 
life-blood flowing from ghastly wounds, sings once more the songs he has 
often sung in the prayer-meeting of the camp: 

"My heavenly home is bright and fair; 
No pain nor death shall enter there. 
Its glittering towers the sun outshines, 
That heavenly mansion shall be mine. 

I'm going home — I'm going home — 

I'm going home, to die no more."(''*) 

So Captain Paxson, of the Forty-eighth New York, lays down his life 
for his country. Live on evermore, heroes of Wagner! 

Sunday morning dawns. The waves are rippling on the beach ; the 
air is calm, after the midnight tempest of the sky. The guns of the mon- 
itors are silent, as are those of Sumter. Before we turn our faces away 
from the ghastly scene at the base of Wagner, let us linger while a white 
flag comes from General Gillmore, with a note requesting the body of 
Colonel Shaw. This the answer : 

" We will let him be buried with his niggers." 

It was not a reply prompted by the natural impulse of the Confederate 
connnander's heart, but it was the brutality engendered by the spirit born 
of slavery. The body of Colonel Shaw was buried where he fell — the 
place wdiich he himself most likely would have chosen. That which was 
intended as an insult will dignify and make glorious the service and sacri- 
fice of his life — dying for the elevation of a despised race. He loved jus- 
tice and liberty. His sympathies were with the poor and lowly and op- 
pressed ; he cast in his lot with them, and so his name will go down the 
ages. During the war there were many heroic scenes, but it may be ques- 
tioned whether any contest, for determination, bravery, endurance, and 
sacriflce of life, surpassed that of Wagner. 

" It may be said," are the words of a Savannah paper, " that a more 



350 MAECHING TO VICTOEr. 

daring and gallant assault lias not been made since tlie commencement of 
the war."('') 

This the commendation of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts by General 
Strong the next morning : " They did well and nobly ; only the fall of 
Colonel Shaw prevented them from entering the fort. They moved up as 
gallantly as any troops conld, and, with their enthusiasm, deserved a better 
fate-'X'") The advance of Sumner's corps up the slope of Marye's Heights 
at Fredericksburg was bravely done, resulting in frightful loss of life ; 
equally brave, and more dramatic, was the Confederate advance across 
Codori's fields at Gettysburg; but neither at Fredericksburg nor at Get- 
tysburg was there persistence and endurance greater than that in the bast- 
ion of Wagner. Tlie winds and the waves have left but a shapeless 
mound where once it stood, but its bastion will remain evermore a land- 
mark in history ; for there the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment, rep- 
resenting a despised race, manifested to the world the manhood of that 
race, and its right to citizenship under the flag of the republic, by giving 
their lives freely that the nation might live. When Sergeant Carney 
leaped the ditch, climbed the glacis, and planted the Stars and Stripes 
upon the parapet of Wagner, the whole African race advanced with him 
across the deep moat which, through all the centuries, had separated it 
from the Anglo - Saxon. Prejudice and contumely disappeared in the 
clouds of that Saturday night's tempest, and witli the dawn of Sunday 
morning came for them the beginning of a new era. 



NOTES TO CHAPTER XVI. 

( ') Palmer, "History of the Forty-eighth New York," p. 84. 

( -) Charleston Mercury, July 13, 1863. 

( 3) Idem. 

( ■») Charleston Mercury, July 20, 1863. 

( 5) Emilio, "Fort Wagner," p. 6. 

( ^) General Seymour's Report. 

( ^) Emilio, "Fort Wagner," p. 7. 

( *) Palmer, " History of the Forty-eighth New York," p. 105. 

( ^) Emilio, "Fort Wagner," p. 11. 

("') Palmer, " History of the Forty-eighth New York," p. 105. 

(") General Taliaferro, quoted (" History of the Forty-eighth New York," p. 107). 

('■') General Seymour's Report. 

('^) General Taliaferro, quoted, p. 107. 

('^) Palmer, " History of the Forty-eighth New York," p. 131. 

('^) Sai-niinnh Republican, August 16, 1863. 

C«) Harper's Weekly, August 15, 1863. 



OPERATION'S AGAINST WAGNER AND SUMTER. 351 



CHAPTER XVII. 

OPERATIONS AGAINST WAGNER AND SUJITER. 

THE Confederate war-ship Florida^ built in England in the early part 
of 1863, was off the coast of Brazil, capturing the merchant-vessels of 
the United States, one of which, the brig Clarence^ instead of being 
burned, was put in coniraand of Lieutenant Reed, with a crew from 
the Florida. A six -pounder howitzer was placed on board, and the 
Clai'ence sailed away to begin her work of destruction, capturing off Cape 
Hatteras the Whistling Wind, loaded with stores for the Union troops 
at New Orleans. In a short time three other ships were captured and 
burned. 

The Alfred Partridge, with the crew of the captured vessel, was sent 
ashore at the uiouth of Delaware Bay — which was the fii'st information of 
Avhat this Confederate sailing-vessel was doing. The next prize was the 
swift-sailing bark Tacony, which was so beautiful and swift that the how- 
itzer was placed on board, and the Clarence set on fire. Up the Xew 
England coast sailed the Tacony, overhauling in quick succession fourteen 
vessels, all of which were destroyed. On June 25th the schooner Archer 
was captured, the howitzer transferred to her deck, and the Tacony given 
to the flames. 

The Confederate commander greatly desired to gain possession of a 
steamer, and learning from some fishermen that the revenue cutter Calel) 
Cashing was in Portland harbor, determined to capture her. As the sun 
was going down on the evening of the 27th the sailors on the fishing- 
smacks off Cape Elizabeth saw a schooner sail into the harbor. The watch 
on the revenue-cutter paid no attention to the schooners that were coming 
and going. The twilight faded away, darkness settled over sea and land, 
wdien suddenly over the bulwarks of the Cushing leaped the Confederates, 
overpowering the watch pacing her deck, securing officers and crew. It 
was all done so quietly that no one in the harbor knew what had hap- 
pened till, in the dim gray of the morning, when Captain Merriman, who 
had been ordered to Portland to take command of the Cushing, and who 
was on the steamer from Boston, saw the Cushing steaming out to sea. 



352 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

There M^as a commotion in Portland. Major Anderson, commanding Fort 
Preble, put his troops on board two steamers, citizens volunteered, and in 
a short time the steamers and three tug -boats were in pursuit. They 
sighted the Gushing and Archer, and by eleven o'clock were within can- 
non-shot. The Confederates opened lire, but the steamers steered straight 
on, whereupon Lieutenant Peed set the Cushing on fire and leaped, with 
his crew, into the small boats ; but before night they were all prisoners 
inside of Fort Preble. 

The first vessel purchased by the Confederate agent in England, Cap- 
tain Bullock, was the steamer Fingal, which at the beginning of the war 
reached Wilmington with a great amount of arms, ammunition, and sup- 
plies for the Confederate army. She had run into Savannah, but being 
unable to get out as a blockade runner, carpenters were set to work, and 
the vessel was changed into an iron-plated ram, renamed the Atlanta, and 
on the morning of June ITth appeared in Ossabaw Sound, carrying six 
guns. She was supposed to be a very strong and powerful vessel, and 
two monitors, the WeeJiaicken and Nahant, were in the sound to meet 
her. The Atlanta had two 7-inch rifled pivot-guns, one fore and the 
other aft, the others on her sides, which were covered with four inches 
of iron bolted upon twenty- four inches of wood, the plating extending 
two feet below the water-line. One million dollars in gold had been 
expended upon her, and Lieutenant Webb, in command, intended, after 
finishing the monitors, to make his appearance among the blockaders off 
Charleston. 

In the early morning light of the 19th of June the Atlanta was dis- 
covered. The Weehawhen slipped her cable and steamed towards her, fol- 
lowed by the Nahant. The AtlantcCs rifled guns first awoke the echoes 
of tlie morning, firing three shots. Then came the roar of one of the 
WeehawTce7i' s cannon, sending a solid shot weighing four hundred and 
forty pounds, wdiich tore through the iron plating and the twenty-four 
inches of solid timber, knocking down by the terrible concussion more 
than forty of the crew, killing or wounding many of them by the splin- 
ters. A second shot struck one of the iron shutters of a port, knocking 
it into fragments, killing or wounding seventeen men. The Atlanta had 
grounded, and was helpless. Three more shots came from the Weehaw- 
hen, riddling the vessel, making terrible havoc among its crew. Fifteen 
minutes, and the contest was over. A white flag went up from the Con- 
federate vessel in token of surrender, and the two steamboats, crowded 
with ladies and gentlemen who had come down from Savannah to see 
the monitors knocked to pieces, steamed back again with the mournful 



OPERATIONS AGAINST WAGNER AND SUMTER. 



355 



news. The Atlanta, which was a vahiable prize, was taken to New 
York, repaired, and rendered excellent service for the Union to the close 
of the war. 

We have already seen (Chapter XYI.) how the monitors and the New 
Ironsides had bombarded Fort Wagner on tlie day of the assault by the 
troops of General Gilhnore, and they were still hurling shot and shell 
upon it. 

General Beauregard determined to hold Morris Island at all hazards. 
General Gilhnore was equally determined to gain possession of Wagner. 
It must be done by regular siege operations — by the shovel, by heavy 
cannon and mortars. On the 20th of June he had two new batteries 
ready, and in the afternoon of that day a shot dismounted a lO^inch Con- 




^■^^. 



DIGGING TRENCHES AND MOUNTING GUNS. 



federate gun. He began, also, a fire upon Sumter. His 30-pounder Par- 
rott cannon were nearly two miles distant, but the shot had so marked an 
effect that he determined to keep his rifled guns pounding its walls. On 
the 28th General Gillmore's troops had dug their way to within sixteen 
liundred feet of Wagner. At night the sliarp-shooters went in advance, 
with shovels, scooped rifle-pits in the sand, and through the day kept such 
a sharp watch that the Confederates could not work their guns. By 



356 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



August 9tli the troops M-ere only four hundred yards from the fort. Gill- 
more had twenty-eight heavy guns and twelve mortars ready, and on the 
17th opened in earnest upon Sumter, while the monitors and gunboats 
rained tlieir fire upon Wagner. During tlie morning six hundred and 
twelve shot and shell were fired at Sumter, dismounting or disabling five 
of its cannon and crumbling the wall. In seven days, up to the 2tlrth, 




UNION SHARP SHOOTERS IN FRONT OP FORT AVAGNER. 



five thousand seven hundred and fifty shot and shell were fired, of which 
nearly four thousand five hundred struck the fort, making it a shapeless 
ruin, with nearly all its guns dismounted. 

" I consider it impossible either to mount or use guns on any part of 
the parapet, and I deem the fort in its present condition unserviceable for 
offensive purposes," was the report made by Colonel Khett, the Confed- 
erate commander, to General Beauregard. 

The call of the Governor of South Carolina and of the Mayor of 
Charleston for slaves to work on the fortifications had been responded to 
by the planters, and earthworks were being thrown up at every point. 
Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island, was of brick, but now great banks of 
sand, twenty feet thick, were heaped against its walls Heavy cannon 
were mounted. Batteries were erected along the shore At the extreme 
end of the island was Fort Marshall, moifnted with sixty-seven cannon, 



OPERATIONS AGAINST WAGNER AND SUMTER. 359 

some of them 8 and 10 inch, with mortars. In Fort Johnson were twelve 
lieavy guns, and near by on a sand-spit were six more. Half a mile from 
this was Battery Wimpler, with two 10-inch columbiads, and just beyond 
it Battery Glover, with three 8-inch rifles. Opposite these, on the other 
side of the channel, were Fort Ripley, a crib-work on a shoal, and Castle 
Pinckney, with three 10-inch guns and one 7-inch rifle. On a point of 
land stood an Eno-lish-made cannon throwino; a shot weishing seven huu- 
dred pounds, and four other 8 and 10 inch guns. Along the shaded prom- 
enade in Charleston, in front of the costliest mansions, were works built 
with cotton sacks filled with sand, where heavy guns were njounted. In 
the harbor were the iron-clad rams, mounting fourteen rifled cannon. The 
guns in the various batteries were so arranged that if the monitors were 
to pass Sumter they would come under a concentrated fire in the inner 
harbor. 

" The farther the enemy got in, the worse off they would be. If they 
passed the outer batteries, they would have come within another circle of 
fire; had they succeeded in passing that, they would have been in the 
centre of still another circular fire. Some of the heaviest guns were on 
these interior batteries," said the Confederate General Ripley. 

Admiral Dahlgren, commanding the Union fieet, had no intention 
of attempting to run past Sumter, but General Gillmore determined to 
gain possession of Morris Island. The people of the North demanded 
that the city of Charleston, which they regarded as having been the hot- 
bed of secession, Avhere the conspiracy', like a hot-house plant, had been 
nourished, should pay the penalty for its crime. 

West of Morris Island were marshes threaded with inlets, where water- 
fowl built their nests, and where the reed-birds gathered in flocks. Colo- 
nel Serrell, of the Volunteer Engineers, planned the construction of a bat- 
tery amid the tall grasses, from which shells might be fired into Charles- 
ton, a distance of nearly five miles. The mud was twenty feet deep. 
The location was under the fire of the Confederate batteries on James 
Island, and the work of construction must all be done in the night. Tim- 
ber was floated from Folly Island through the creeks ; piles were driven 
into the mud ; bags were filled with sand and taken to the spot. A 
long causeway was constructed over the marsh. In all, thirteen thou- 
sand bags were used ; together with one hundred and twenty-three tim- 
bers eighteen inches in diameter and fifty-five feet long; besides fifteen 
thousand feet of plank and boards. A 200-pounder Parrott gun was 
mounted. 

On August 21st General Gillmore informed General Beauregard by 



360 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



Hag of truce that Lis batteries were in position to open fire upon Cliarles- 
ton, and demanded the evacuation of Morris Ishmd and Fort Sumter, 
which General Beauregard refused to do. The soldiers called the battery 
the " Swamp Angel," but upon firing the thirtj-fifth shell the cannon 
burst. 

The sappers and miners digging the trenches in front of Wagner 
were annoyed by the Confederate sharp-shooters lying behind a sand- 
ridge, and the Twenty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment was selected to dis- 
lodge them. On the night of the 26th of August the mortars and batter- 
ies which had been firing through the day suddenly ceased, when up sprang 
the Massachusetts men, rushing across the sand, and capturing nearly all 
the Confederates. Following the soldiers came men with shovels, who in 




MAP OP APPROACHES TO WAGNEK. 



a few minutes, before the Confederates in the fort could open fire, had a 
bank of sand thrown up completely sheltering them, enabling General Gill- 
more to open the fifth parallel within three hundred feet of the fort. The 
next night the men in the trenches were only one hundred feet from the 
fort. At that point the sand«ridge between the sea and the marsh was 
only two feet high and twenty-five feet wide. The Confederate batteries 
on James Island were sending shells across the marshes with great accu- 
racy, and the shovellers could not dig any farther unless so hot a fire was 
poured upon the fort that the Confederates would be compelled to keep 
inside the bomb-proof. General Gillmore brought forward all his light 
mortars, placed his guns nearer, and an-anged a powerful calcium light, 
with which he could illuminate Wagner at night and enable the gunners 
to sight the cannon, and tl)e sharp-shooters to pick off those attempting to 
Avork the guns. The light dazzled the Confederates while it increased 
the darkness of the Union trenches. 

On September 5th the bombardment began from seventeen mortars, 
and thirteen Parrott rifled cannon ; and from the frigate New Ironsides 
continued without cessation for forty- two hours a continuous stream of 
rifled shot and exploding shells, so terrible that the Confederates were 



OPERATIONS AGAINST WAGNER AND SUMTER. ?>0o 

compelled to remain under the bomb-proof, where the heat was stifling, 
and greatly weakening and dispiriting theni. While the shells were ex- 
ploding the Union shovellers were at work, eairjing their trench along 
the flank of the fortification. General Gillmore intended to storm the fort 
at ebb-tide on the morning of September 7th. He did not know that Gen- 
eral Beauregard Avas reading all the signals that passed between the army 
and the fleet by the waving of flags ; but he had discovered the key by 
capturing a Union signal-offlcer, who in some way, or by some inducement, 
gave away the secret. He read the signal waved from the shore to the 
JVew Ironsides that Wagner was to be assaulted, and as soon as it was 
dark the troops came out of the bomb-proof and made haste to Cnm- 
ming's Point, and thence in boats to Charleston. 

There was only one cannon remaining in Snmter, but a regiment of 
Confederate infantry was there to hold the fort. Admiral Dahlgren 
planned an expedition for the capture of Snmter by sailors in boats at 
night, but the Confederate officer watching the waving of the Union 
signal -flags read the message sent to Gillmore regarding the plan, and 
when the boats moved up in the darkness all the batteries on Sullivan's 
and James islands opened upon them, and they were quickly repulsed with 
a loss of more than one hundi-ed men. 

Admiral Dahlgren determined to bombard Fort Moultrie, and the moni- 
tors, on September 7th, steamed up the channel and opened fire. The 
WeehawA'en ran aground, and all the Confederate batteries opened upon 
her. The other monitors and the JVew Ironsides replied, continuing the 
fire several hours, when suddenly there came an explosion in Moultrie, 
lifting a great cloud of sand high in the air, together with planks and 
timbers and shells, which exploded about the garrison with a concussion 
that jarred all the windows of Charleston, and which was heard far away. 

It was seen that though the magazine had been exploded, the fort was 
little damaged by the bombardment. The Navy Department at Washing- 
ton did not wish Admiral Dahlgren to attempt to run into Charleston har- 
bor, for the iron-clad ram which had been launched at Birkenhead, Eng- 
land, was nearly ready for sea, and the monitors alone could cope with so 
formidable a vessel. 

Going over to London, we see Mr. Adams during those September 
days writing vigorous letters to Lord John Kussell. 

A second ram had been launched. It was well known that the vessels 
were being built for the Confederate Government, and although Mr. Adams 
had repeatedly called Lord John Kussell's attention to them, the building 
and outfitting were allowed to go on. 



3G4 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

" The Govermnent cannot interfere in any way with these vessels," 
wrote Lord John Russell in reply to Mr. Adams. 

" The ram is taking coal on board, and she may go to sea at any time," 
was the despatch from the United States Consul at Liverpool to Mr. Adanir, 
September 3d. 

"In the name of my government I make this last solemn protest against 
the commission of such an act of hostility against a friendly nation," said 
Mr. Adams to Lord John Russell the next day. Two days later he wrote : 

" At this moment, when one of the iron-clad vessels is on the point of 
departure from this kingdom on its hostile errand against the United States, 
it wonld be snperiiuous for me to point ont to your lordship that this is 
war." 

Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston began to see things in a new 
lio-ht. They sympathized with the Confederacy, but were not quite ready 
to go to war with the United States ; for in that case British ships as well 
as American vessels might possibly be burned at sea, and orders were issued 
to prevent the sailing of the iron-clads. Several large war-ships took posi- 
tion off tlie ship-yard where the ram was lying. 

To be prepared for them, the monitoi's waited in the outer harl)or of 
Charleston ; while General Gillmore planted his heavy long-range rifled 
cannon on Cumming's Point, and began the bombardment of the city, 
which was to go on, day after day, to the end of the war. 



EAST TENNESSEE. 365 



CHAPTER XYIII. 

EAST TENNESSEE. 

nr'^HE section of conntiy called Eastern Tennessee includes thirty coun- 
-*- ties. From its many mountain ranges it lias been called the Switzerland 
of America, but it has no gleaming ice-clad peaks, no lofty summits white 
with snow in midsummer, no rivers of ice grinding through deep gorges. 
Upon the north are the Cumberland Mountains, where the rivulets which 
course down the valleys form the Cumberland River, flowing westward 
through Kentucky to the Ohio River. On the south are the Alleghany 
Mountains, extending in a continuous chain into Georgia and Alabama. 
Between these two great ranges are others of less magnitude. Through 
the valleys flow the Holston River, the French Broad, Clinch, Hiawassee, 
and other streams, which, when united, form the Tennessee. It is a region 
of mountains, wooded hills, undulating plains. Along the Holston and 
Hiawassee, the lands are fertile, and in midsummer the air is fragrant 
with clover -blooms, and the landscape golden with ripening wheat. In 
the autumn the orchards are laden with apples, peaches, and plums. But 
in many places the soil is thin, and yields scanty harvests to the farmers. 
The mountains are clothed with dense forests, the haunts of deer. There 
are few roads for wagons, but many paths leading up the valleys, across 
streams, and over the mountain ranges. 

The people were a hardy race of mountaineers. They lived plain, sim- 
ple lives. Their homes were log-cabins, with a great fireplace at one end, 
a chimney of sticks and mud ; the floors were of hewn timber. Their 
wants were few. The men planted a little patch with corn, another with 
potatoes. They raised pigs that they might have bacon. The women and 
girls spun yarn upon the old-fashioned wheel, and wove cloth in the house- 
hold loom. Their gowns were of cotton and wool. The garments of the 
men were cotton jeans dyed brown with butternut bark. 

These people had few of the comforts uf civilization, and were con- 
tent with their lot in life. The corn which they raised was ground to 
coarse meal in a hand-mill or in a rude water-mill upon a mountain brook. 



36G 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



They hunted deer and bear iti the forests, or supplied themselves with 
fish from the streams. 

There were few slaves in Eastern Tennessee. The climate was not 
suited to the profitable cultivation of cotton, and so they had no sympathy 
with the Confederacy, w^hich was established on a slave-holding aristocracy 
of cotton-planters. They had ever been free and independent, and no ar- 




INTERTOR OF A MOUNTAINEER S HOME IN TENNESSEE. 



gument, however persuasive, could turn them from their allegiance to the 
Union established by their fathei's. 

The legislature which had been elected in 1860 was in favor of seced- 
ing from the Union, and passed a vote submitting the question of holding 
a convention to the people. The people of the State, by a majority of 
more than twenty thousand, voted not to hold a convention. In the 
counties composing Eastern Tennessee, seven thousand five hundred voted 
for the convention, thirty-four thousand against it. 

The governor of the State, Isham G. Harris, was a Secessionist, and, 
not to be thwarted in his plans, called the legislature together. It met on 
April 25, 1861, when the whole country was aroused over the firing on 
Fort Sumter. He said in his messao^e that the time had come for irame- 



EAST TENNESSEE. 



367 



diate action ; that they need not wait to submit the question to the peo- 
ple. A commissioner from the Confederate States, Henry ^Y. Hilliard, ad- 
dressed the members, setting forth the future greatness and glory of the 
Confederacy. The Secessionists, having a majority, authorized Governor 
Harris to enter into a military league with the Confederate States. The 
eighteen members from East Tennessee, being in a hopeless minority, did 
not vote. The governor was authoi-ized to raise fifty thousand volunteers, 
and five million dollars was appropriated to enable him to do so. By 
tliis act the whole military force of the State was placed under the con- 
trol of Jefferson Davis, in opposition to the expressed will of the people. 




CORN-MILL IN EAST TENNESSEE. 

Not only the troops but the treasury was given into the control of the 
President of the Confederacy— an act destined to drench the State with 
blood, ravage its fields, destroy its wealth, sweep into untimely graves 
ihousands of brave men, array brother against brother, and engender feuds 
which would remain long after the closing of the war. The legislature 



BG8 MARCHING TO VICTORY-. 

voted, May Ttli, to submit the question to the people, well knowing that 
before June 8th the State would be irrevocably attached to the Con- 
federacy. The voting was a farce and fraud. Confederate soldiers from 
other States cast in their ballots. It is said that the returns were altered 
by the authorities to swell the majority in favor of secession. But the 
people of East Tennessee, despite all frauds, gave a majority of nineteen 
thousand against secession. 

The entire mountain region of the Southern States was loyal to the 
Union — West Virginia, Kentucky, East Tennessee, North Carolina, and 
Northern Georgia. By the advance of troops from Ohio into West Vir- 
ginia, at the beginning of the war, the Confederates had been expelled ; 
nor is there much doubt that if a Union army could have reachetl 
Knoxville in the fall of ISGl, the people of East Tennessee, West North 
Carolina, and Northern Georgia would have risen en masse against the 
Confederacy. 

Brave men whose homes were upon the mountain -sides were not 
intimidated by the persecutions they were called upon to suffer. Prom- 
inent among them were Rev. Mr. Brownlow, a Methodist minister, who 
published the Knoxville Whig • Andrew Johnson, who began life as a 
tailor, who had been governor of the State, and was then Senator in 
Congress ; and Horace Maynard, Representative in Congress, who en- 
couraged the people to resist the Secessionists. The feeling became 
very bitter. Families were divided. Instead of brotherly love there was 
liatred. Ministers of the Gospel who had preached charity, who had sat 
at the same communion, became estranged. Society was broken up The 
Union men formed loyal leagues, meeting at night in secret. " Parson " 
Brownlow, as the people familiarly called him, hoisted the Stars and 
Stripes above his house, and kept it flying there until his arrest by the 
Confederate Government, and his paper, the Knoxville Whig^ was sup- 
pressed. 

Altercations took place in midsummer, 1861, between the Confederate 
soldiers and the Union men, one of whom was shot in the street. Charles 
S. Douglas hoisted the Stars and Stripes over his house, and said that he 
should protect it, whereupon a Confederate secreted himself in a hotel 
chamber opposite, and when Mr. Douglas appeared at his window sent 
a bullet through his heart. The court was in session, but the judge and 
the State's attorney being Secessionists, would not issue a warrant for the 
arrest of the murderer. So bitter were the Confederates, that the min- 
ister of the Episcopal Church Avho read the burial service at his fimeral 
was denounced and ostracized by his fellow-Secessionists.Q 



EAST TENNESSEE. 



369 



Opprobrious terms were applied to the Union men, who were called 
" Lincolnites," " Tories," " Hessians," " Black Republicans," " Eebels." 

The Union men, feeling that the State had been forced into the Con- 
federacy by fraud, determined to defend themselves, and do what damage 
, they could to the Confederate Government. Troops guarded the bridges 
on the railroads. On ^November 8, 1861, the Union men overpowered the 




AITDREW JOHNSON. 



guards, and burned six bridges— four on the East Tennessee Railroad, and 
two on the railroad between Chattanooga and Atlanta. 

" The Union party are organizing, and preparing to destroy or take 
possession of the whole line from Bristol and Chattanooga," wrote the 
president of the railroad the next morning.(') 
24 



370 MARCHING TO VICTOEY. 

" There is a concerted movement to destroy the bridges, and cut off 
communication from one portion of the Southern Confederacy with the 
other. A worse state of feeling never prevailed in East Tennessee than 
at the present moment,"(') wrote the Confederate commissary the same 
day. 

Mr. Benjamin, Secretary of "War, sent Colonel Leadbeater, with a bat- 
talion of troops and Stovall's battery, from Richmond, and Colonel Will- 
iam B. Wood, who had been a Methodist minister before the war, with 
the Sixteenth Georgia. General Carroll, who had been commissioned by 
Governor Harris, was in command, and the movement was begun to put 
down the rebellion. 

A Confederate gives this picture of the state of affairs in Washington 
County, almost at the eastern end of the State : 

" Civil war has broken out. In this county the Secession strength is 
about equal to the Union force, but we are weakened by five volunteer 
companies now in the service. In Carter and Johnson counties, north-east 
of this, the Union strength is not only as formidable, but is as violent as 
that of the north-western Virginia counties. They look confidently for 
the re-establishment of the Federal authority in the South with as much 
confidence as the Jews look for the coming of the Messiah, and no event 
or circumstance will change their hopes. . . . There are now encamped in 
and about Elizabethtown, in Carter County, some twelve or fifteen hun- 
dred men, with a motley assortment of guns, in open defiance of the Con- 
federate States. These men are gathered up from three or five counties, 
and comprise the hostile Union element, which never will be aj^peased, 
conciliated, or quieted in a Southern Confederacy." Q 

" The burning of the bridges," wrote Governor Harris to Jefferson 
Davis, " shows a deep-seated spirit of rebellion. Union men are organiz- 
ing. The rebellion must be crushed instantly, the leaders arrested and 
summarily punished. I shall send ten thousand men to that section."Q 

" The Lincolnites have from six hundred to a thousand men near Straw- 
berry Plains Bridge, the most important and expensive on our road, and 
still collecting in great numbers, and threaten to take possession of our 
road," wrote the president of the railroad, November 13th. Q 

General Bragg, who was at Pensacola, sent the Seventh Georgia Regi- 
ment to help crush the rebellion. Together with the other troops they 
attempted to surprise the Union men, who had gathered at a camp-meet- 
ing ground, between Knoxville and Chattanooga ; but having notice of 
their coming, and being too few to resist them, the Union men dispersed — 
some secreting themselves in caves in the mountains, others making their 



EAST TENNESSEE. 371 

way into Kentnckj. The colonel commanding the Seventh Georgia re- 
ported that he had arrested " twelve traitors, the most miserable, ignorant, 
poor, ragged creatures he ever saw."(') 

If the monntaineers were poor creatures, so was the Confederate brig- 
adier-general, who had been appointed by Governor Harris, in the es- 
timation of the colonel of the Seventh Georgia, who wrote these words 




W. G. BROWNLOW. 



to his superior in command: "General Carroll has just been appointed. 
He has been drunk not less than five years. He is stupid, but easily con- 
trolled. He knows nothing, and I believe I can do with him pretty much 
as I please." 

Those loyal to the Union, seeing that they could not successfully re- 
sist, were making their way over the mountains and through the valleys 
to Kentucky. It is estimated that more than twenty thousand thus, left 
their homes, rather than remain to be compelled to take the oath of al- 
legiance and be conscripted into the Confederate army. Other thousands 



372 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

were arrested and imprisoned. Every jail was full. Some were sent to 
I^^ashville, and several hundred to tlie Confederate prison at Tuscaloosa, 
Alabama. 

" Parson " Brownlow had been outspoken in his paper, and the Con- 
federates thirsted for his blood. Colonel Wood proclaimed martial law 
in Knoxville, which made him superior to civil law, and gave him all 
authority. Pie, too, was a preacher, but he set men to hunting for Mr. 
Brownlow, and all other Union ministers. Members of the legislature 
who opposed secession fled to the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina. 
Up amid the cliffs, in a deep gorge easily guarded, they established their 
camp ; but the Confederate spies discovered them, and they were com- 
pelled to disperse. 

Mr. Brownlow, upon the promise of General Crittenden, commanding 
the Military Department, that he should receive a pass into Kentucky and 
be protected by a military force to that State, returned to Knoxville, 
but was arrested on charge of treason, was refused bail, and sent to jail. 
His treason was the publication of articles in his paper several months 
before his arrest. 

"I was thrown into jail," he wrote, " where I found about one hundred 
and fifty Union men, old and young, representing all professions. The jail 
was so crowded that on the lower floor we had not room to lie down all at 
once. The prisoners took rest by turns, a portion standing while others 
slept. There was not a chair, bench, stool, block, table, or any other article 
of furniture, save a wooden bucket and a tin cuj) used for watering the 
occupants. . . . The food was not fit for a dog. It was composed of scraps 
and leavings of a dirty hotel kept by the jailer and tlie deputy-marshal of 
the Confederacy. I never tasted it, but was allowed the privilege of hav- 
ing my meals sent from home three times a day. This vile treatment and 
loathsome food produced disease. We were cursed and denounced both 
day and night by the brutes who guarded us."(°) 

From Mr. Brownlow's diary we obtain a picture of the state of 
affairs : 

''''Saturday^ Dec. 1th. — This morning forty of our number, nnder a heavy 
military escort, were sent to Tuscaloosa. Thirty-one others arrived to 
take their places. They bring tales of woe as to the treatment of Union 
men and Union families by the drunken and debauched cavalry in this 
rebellion. They are taking all the fine horses, appropriating them to their 
own rise ; are entering houses, seizing money, blankets, and whatever they 
can use. 

^^ Sunday, Dec. Sth. — Three others arrived, telling us tales of horror as 



EAST TENNESSEE. 



375 



to the treatment of Union men. Self-styled vigilance committees are 
prowling over the country like wolves, arresting men upon suspicion of 
hostility to their new government, and shooting others. They speak of 
the case of poor Pearce, a quiet man, a Methodist class-leader, shot down 
in the field, not for any offence, but simply for being a Union man. 

^''Monday, Dec. %th. — More prisoners in this evening. Twentv-eio-ht 
are in from Jefferson County. Some of the prisoners have given the par- 
ticulars of the hanging of 
Hensie and Fry upon the 
same limb of a tree close 
to the railroad track. 

"Z>^c.ll^A.— C.A.Hann 
was taken out to-day and 
hung on charge of bridge- 
burning. He had but short 
notice of his sentence, hav- 
ing been condemned with- 
out any defence allowed 
him by a drum -head and 
whiskey - drinking court- 
martial, I think that he 
Avas notified of his coming 
death about one hour in 
advance. He desired a 
Methodist preacher to pray 
with him, and this was re- 
fused. . . . Fifteen more prisoners came to-day from Greene and Hancock 
counties, charged with having been armed as Union men and accustomed 
to drill, which I have no doubt is true. 

'■''Dec. 15th. — Started thirty-five of our lot" to Tuscaloosa, to be held 
during the war. Levi Teewhitt, an able lawyer, but an old man, will 
never get back. His sons came to see him, but were refused the privilege. 
Dr. Hunt, from the same county of Bradley, has also gone. His wife 
came sixty miles to see him, to the jail door, but was refused admittance. 

^'Dec. I7tk. — Brought in a Union man from Campbell County to-day, 
leaving behind six small children, and their mother dead. The man's 
offence is holding out for the Union. Two more carts draw up with cof- 
fins in them and a military guard. They marched out Jacob Harmon and 
his son Henry, and hung them upon the same gallows. The old man was 
a man of jiroperty, quite old and infirm, and they compelled him to sit on 




HANGING UNION MEN IN TENNESSEE. 



376 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

the scaffold and see his son hang first; then he was ordered np and hung 
by his side. They were charged with bridge-burning, but protested to the 
last that they were not guilty. 

'"''Dec. ISth. — Discharged sixty prisoners to-day, who had been in prison 
from three, to five weeks — taken through mistake, as was said, there being 
nothing against them, 

'■'■Dec. ^Qth. — This is a terrible night ! The sentinels are all drunk, 
howling like wolves, rushing to our windows, daring prisoners to show 
their heads, firing off their guns into the jail, and pretending it was acci- 
dental. 

^^Dec. 21st. — Took out five of the prisoners, upon their agreeing to go 
into the rebel army. Their dread of Tuscaloosa induced them to go into 
the service. They have offered this choice to all, and only sent off those 
who stubbornly refused. 

'■^Dec. 2i>th. — The Union ladies in and around Knoxville applied to 
General Carroll for leave to send in a Christmas dinner. He granted 
leave. It affords me pleasure to know that I have been able, out of my 
basket of provisions and coffee-pot, to furnish several old men and very 
sick, who could not eat what comes from the greasy inn. Two of them 
are Baptist ministers — Pope and Colt — each more than seventy years of 
age. The first named was sent here for praying in his pulpit for the 
President of the United States. The latter is here for cheering the Stars 
and Stripes. 

'■''Dec. 21ili. — Harrison Self, an honest, industrious, and peaceable man, 
citizen of Greene County, was notified this morning that he was to be 
hanged at four o'clock, p.m. His daughter, a noble girl, modest, and neatly 
attired, came this morning to see him. Heart-broken and bowed under 
a fearful weight of sorrow, she entered his iron cage, and they embraced 
each other most affectionately. My God, what a sight ! — what an affect- 
ing scene ! May these eyes of mine, bathed in tears, never look upon the 
like again ! She came out weeping bitterly and shedding burning tears. 
Requesting me to write a despatch for her and sign her name to it, I took 
out my pencil and slip of paper and wrote the following: 

" ' Knoxville, December 27, 1861. 
" 'Eon. Jefferson Dams: 

" 'My father, Harrison Self, is sentenced to hang at four o'clock this evening, on a 

charge of bridge-burning. As he remains my earthly all, and all my hopes of happiness 

centre in him, I implore you to pardon him. Elizabeth Self.' 

" With this despatch the jDOor girl hurried off to the office, and about 



EAST TENNESSEE. 377 

two o'clock the answer came to General Carroll, telling liini not to allow 
Self to be hung, 

" UiDon the jail floor, in one corner, lies Madison Cote, low with fever, 
and upon a bit of old carpeting. I feel confident that he will die. He has 
a little farm in Sevier County, a wife, and six small children, and is here for 
being a Union man and mustering a company of Union Guards. . . . The 
wife of poor Cote came and presented herself in front of the jail -with an 
infant at her breast five or six weeks old — born, I think, since her hus- 
band was put in jail. Slie asked leave to see her dying husband, but was 
refused at the door. I put my head out of the window, telling them that 
it was a sin and a shame to refuse this poor woman, after coming so far, 
the liberty of seeing her husband for the last time. They allowed her to 
enter, but limited her stay to twenty minutes. Oh, my soul, what a scene ! 
Seeing the form of her husband on the floor, she sank upon his breast. In 
that condition, without a word, they remained until her twenty minutes 
expired, of which being notified she retired. Oh, what opj^ression ! This 
is the spirit of secession." 

The )nen w^ho were accused of burning the bridges were hung in ac- 
cordance with the following order of Mr. Benjamin, the Confederate Sec- 
retary of War : 

" All such as can be identified as having been engaged in bridge-burn- 
ing are to be tried summarily by drum-head court-martial, and, if found 
guilty, executed on the spot by hanging. It would be well to leave their 
bodies hanging in the vicinity of the burned bridges."("') 

In regard to the Union men in general, Mr. Benjamin issued this order : 

" All such as have not been so engaged are to be treated as prisoners 
of war, and sent with an armed guard to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. . . . They 
are all to be held as prisoners of war, and held in jail till the end of the 
war. Such as come in voluntarily and take the oath of allegiance and sur- 
render their arms, are alone to be treated with leniency." 

A Confederate ofiicer has thus pictured the course pursued by the Con- 
federate Government in crushing out the Union men, and the results of 
their actions : " Scouting parties were sent in every direction, who ar- 
rested hundreds suspected of disloyalty, and incarcerated them in prison, 
until almost everj^ jail in the eastern end of the State was filled with poor, 
ignorant, and, for the most part, harmless men, who had been guilty of no 
crime. . . . The rigorous measures adopted by the military commander, 
struck still greater terror into those who had before been Union men, and, 
to avoid arrest and, as they thought, subsequent punishment, concealed 
themselves, thus giving a semblance of guilt to action innocent in fact and 



3TS • MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

entirely natural. The greatest distress prevails tlironghont the country in 
consequence of the various arrests, together with the fact that the horses 
and other property have been seized and approjDriated by the soldiers or 
wantonly destroyed. Old political animosities and private grudges have 
been revived, and bad men among our friends are availing themselves of 
the opportunities afforded them by bringing Southern men to hunt down 
with the ferocity of blood-hounds all those against whom they entertain 
any feeling of dislike."(") 

So bitter the hatred of Secessionists towards Union men that it was 
proposed to Inmt down the Union men with blood-hounds.C'^) 

East Tennessee was a desolation in 1862-63. Only old men, women, 
and little children were to be seen ; the Union men were in prison, or 
fugitives secreted amid the mountains, or refugees in Kentucky, or else 
were swept by the remorseless conscription of the Confederacy into the 
army to fight against the flag they loved. Several tliousand made their 
way to Kentucky, and enlisted in the Union army. Like the patriots of 
the Hevolution, they endured indescribable suffering and hardship. In no 
other section of the country was the course pursued by the Confederate 
Government so relentless as in this mountain region. 

Tlie sufferings of the people, their tales of woe, their allegiance to the 
Union, deeply affected President Lincoln, who urged the military authori- 
ties to organize a movement for their relief. 

Not till after Yicksburg had been taken by General Grant could troops 
be spared for such a movement. General Buckner, with several thousand 
Confederates, was at Knoxville. The troops of the Ninth and Twenty- 
third corps, under General Burnside, were to drive him out and seize the 
raih'oad leading from Virginia, over which the Confederate troops could 
pass from west to east, or east to west, as needed. If he could hold that 
railroad the Confederate armies would be greatly embarrassed. If East 
Tennessee could be gained, it would be a great advantage. General Rose- 
crans was to advance towards Chattanooga at the same time that Burnside 
was to move for Knoxville. 

On August 21, 1863, we see Bnrnside's army advancing in two columns 
— one under General Hartsuff, moving through Somerset, in Kentucky, 
near the battle-ground of Mill Springs, the other througli Jacksboro, under 
General Foster. 

There was a body of Confederates at Cumberland Gap, and Burnside, 
to conceal his real movement, sent Colonel De Courcey in that direction, as 
if he were about to move his whole force to gain that mountain gate-way. 

The army left all heavy baggage behind. The troops took, not the 



EAST TENNESSEE. 



379 




4 ^^^rf^'^- 



burnside's keception at knoxville. 

great travelled roads, but those little used, while the wagon-trains followed 
on the great roads. 

For fourteen days the troops inarched, starting early in the morning 
and keeping on till the stars appeared at night. The men were stronger 
than the mules, for hundreds of animals dropped by the road-side, while 
the men moved on, climbing the rugged hill-sides, dragging the cannon 
when the horses gave out. 



380 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



It was a surprise to the Confederate army under Buckner at Knoxville, 
who hastily left, retreating to Chattanooga to join General Bragg. In four- 
teen days the troops marched two hundred and fifty miles. 

How the people welcomed them ! Wherever they appeared, the old 
flag, which had been concealed under carpets, or sewed up in feather-beds, 
or buried in the ground, was once more flung out to the winds. Tears of 
joy streamed down the cheeks of old men, while the young men were 
ready to enlist in the service, to fight those who had made life so bitter. 
The housewives kept their ovens glowing day and night to bake bread for 




BURNSIDE S ARMY OCCUPYING CUMBERLAND GAP. 
Fiom a sketch made in 1S63. 



the soldiers. Nothing was too good to give them. At one place between 
Kingston and Knoxville stood seventy women and girls with bread and 
fried chicken, waving the Stars and Stripes and shouting "Hurrah for 
the Union !" 

The advance of the Union troops was so rapid that General Buckner 
did not have time to destroy the Confederate arsenal, machine shops, loco- 
motives, and railway material, all of which fell into Burnside's hands. On 



EAST TENNESSEE. S81 

Sei^tember 3d tlie army entered Knoxville amid the shouts of the j^eople, 
and took possession of the line of raih-oad leading to Vii-ginia. From that 
day on the old flag was to wave in triumph above the town. 

It is sixty miles from Knoxville to Cumberland Gap, and the route is 
acr(iss mountain ranges. On the morning of September 4th a body of Union 
troops under General Shackelford was sent towards the Gap. General 
Burnside followed, and two days later the troops were closing in upon the 
Confederates in the fort, who could not escape, and on the ninth General 
Fraser, having no hope of relief, surrendered his two thousand five hundred 
troops, eleven cannon, and a large quantity of ammunition. By rapid 
marching, quick action, and admirable strategy East Tennessee was recov- 
ered to the Union without a battle. 

Let us now leave the mountains of Eastern Tennessee, and travel west- 
ward to the beautiful plains of Kansas, where the j^rairie flowers are in 
bloom — not to behold the beauty of the landscape, nor to inhale the fra- 
grance of the wild roses or jasmine along the tangled thickets of its streams, 
but to read the record of a bloody tragedy — an exhibition of hate and 
vengeance, prompted by the spirit of slavery. 

In 1854, when Kansas was made a territory and its lands thrown open 
to settlement, and when the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which prohib- 
ited slavery north of the northern boundary of Missouri, was repealed, there 
was a struggle between freedom and slavery for the possession of the country 
("Building the Nation," p. 407). A company of free-State emigrants from 
Massachusetts laid out the town of Lawrence — in honor of Mr. Amos A. 
Lawrence, who had contributed money to aid them. Through the struggle 
for the possession of the territory during the administration of President 
Buchanan, Lawrence had been the town hated above all others by the slave- 
holding Missourians, who had been defeated in all their schemes to make 
Kansas a slave State. With its free schools, its attractions for settlers, the 
town had prospered, and in 1863 was one of the most beautiful in the 
State. 

There was no Confederate army in Missouri, but in the western coun- 
ties, bordering on Kansas, were many lawless desperadoes, who delighted 
to make midnight incursions into Kansas to steal horses, drive off cattle, 
robbing, plundering, and shooting the settlers. One of the leaders of the 
gang went by the name of W. C, Quantrell. It is said that it was not his 
true name ; that he had left home and friends in Maryland to become a 
ruffian in the far West. 

Early in the summer of 1863 he organized a band of guerillas, who 
robbed and plundered the hamlet of Olathe, killing seven of the citizens. 



382 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



A few nights after, he plundered and burned the town of Shawnee, and 
killed several of the inhabitants. "Word came to the people of Lawrence 
that he intended to burn that town, whereupon the citizens formed a mili- 
tary company, and a company of soldiers was sent by General Ewing to 
protect the town, "Weeks went by, and as Quantrell did not come, the 
soldiers were withdraAvn, and the people forgot to be vigilant. Their 
arms were deposited in a building for safe keeping. Quantrell was biding 




MASSACRE OF THE CITIZENS OF LAWRENCE. 



his time. His followers were at work on their farms — j)eaceable citizens, 
seemingly — or else were hiding in out-of-the-way places, waiting for his 
signal. 

On the night of August 20th he gathered his band — ruffians with 
long hair, full beards, wearing greasy shirts and broad -brimmed hats, 
armed with revolving pistols and rifles — all on horseback. The sun had 
gone down, but the moon was shining when they started. It was a march 
of forty miles to Lawrence. Quantrell did not wish to reach it before 
daybreak, and they moved at a slow trot across the prairie. Ko one saw 
them. No sentinel was on watch in the streets of the doomed town. Day 
was dawning when, with a yell, a whoop as wild and barbaric as that of a 
tribe of Indians, the desperadoes dashed through the streets. Men who 
sprang from their beds and rushed to window or door to see what was 



EAST TENNESSEE. 383 

going on, the next moment were shot down. There was only one brick 
building in town — the Eldridge House. Quantrell was quick to secure it ; 
and the guests — men, women, and children — were told to dress quickly, 
and were then marched to the Whitney House, where the murderers es- 
tablished their headquarters. Some of the citizens, including Senator 
James H. Lane, knowing that no mercy would be shown them, escaped 
into a cornfield. The mayor of the city secreted himself in a well. 

Quantrell, after establishing a line of skirmishers around the town to 
prevent the escape of the inhabitants, issued this order : " Kill every 
man ; burn every house." From sunrise till past ten o'clock the massacre 
went on. The sounds which broke the stillness of the morning Avere the 
cracking of the pistol, the pleading of wives that their husbands might 
be spared — of children that tlieir fathers might not be murdered — of de- 
fenceless men that they might not be shot. The pleadings and j^rayers 
fell npon hearts of stone. When all the men they could find had been 
murdered — when there was no more opportunity to exercise fiendish hate 
and malignity — -when they had ransacked all the dwellings, and taken 
whatever pleased their fancy — money, watches, jewellery, clothing — the 
houses were set on fire. 

A set of ruffians, crazy with whiskey and rum, came to the Whitney 
House, with oaths demanding that the guests of the Eldridge House, 
strangers in the town, be brought out. " I am .going to kill somebody,'' 
said one, flourishing his pistol. " Then kill me," said a woman, stepping 
before him, who had seen her husband shot. The ruflian, abashed by her 
action, could not fire at her, and departed. Quantrell had eaten a good 
breakfast, which he had compelled the landlord of the Whitney House to 
give him. It was past ten o'clock. He knew that the settlers would soon 
be gathering to cut off his retreat to Missouri. 

"I bid you good-morning, ladies. I hope when we meet again it will 
be under more favorable circumstances," he said, as he leaped into his 
saddle and rode away, leaving one hundred and eighty-three corj)ses in 
the streets — peaceful citizens, massacred from hate and thirst for ven- 
geance. One hundred and eighty-five buildings were in fiames.('') Kone 
of the murderers were arrested, or made to suffer for their crimes. They 
were not even declared to be outlaws. On May 11, 18S8, sixteen of them 
assembled at Blue Springs, Missouri, to celebrate the massacre by recount- 
ing their deeds of blood. Quantrell died a peaceful death in the Sisters 
Hospital, Louisville, Kentucky, June 5, 1865 ; but the mother of the dead 
chief murderer, Caroline Quantrell, journeyed from Ohio to Missouri to 
be present at the gathering. This the report published in the newspapers 



384 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

of the day : " The men spoke of their bloody murders and fiendish crimes 
without the slightest hesitation." 

Kind, lenient, forbearing, great in its benevolence, unparalleled in its 
charity, that government of a people which could overlook such a crime 
as the massacre of Lawrence, brought about by the secession of the cotton- 
growing States and the establishment of the Confederacy. 

So, on this far-distant frontier, the spirit which brought about the con- 
spiracy against the Government and inaugurated the war — which attempt- 
ed to establish a government based on human slavery — massacred in cold 
blood peaceful citizens who were taking no part in the war. 



NOTES TO CHAPTER XVIII. 

( 1) Brownlow's Book, p. 279. 

( '-) John R. Branner, Records of the War Departmeut, Series I., vol. iv., p. 231. 

( 3) R. G. Fain, idem, p. 231. 

( ') A. G. Graham, idem, p. 239. 

( ^) Governor Harris, idem, p. 240. 

( ^) Jolin R. Branner, idem, p. 243. 

( ■>) S. A. M. Wood, idem, 248. 

( s) Idem, p. 299. 

( 9) Brownlow's Book, pp. 305-329. 

('") Benjamin to Wood, Records of the War Department, Series I., vol. vii., p. 701, 

(") H. C. Young to D. M. Currin, idem, p. 777. 

('') MempJns Appeal, Advertisement quoted in Brownlow's Book, p. 349. 

('*) Annals of Kansas. 



FKOM MURFREESBOKO TO CHICKAMAUGA. 3S5 



CHAPTER XIX. 

FROM MURFREESBOKO TO CHICKAMAUGA. 

^r^HE year 1863 opened with the Union army under General Rosecrans 
-■- victorious on the battle-field of Stone River ("Drum-beat of the 
Nation," chap. xvii.). 

The Confederates under General Bragg had attacked, and after a two 
days' struggle had been defeated. Had we been in the camps of the Con- 
federate army at midnight, after the second day's engagement, we should 
have seen Major- generals Cheatham and Witliers writing this letter to 
General Bragg : 

" We deem it our duty to say to you frankly that in our judgment this 
army should be promptly put in retreat. You have but three brigades 
that are at all reliable, and even some of these that are more or less de- 
moralized. . , . We fear great disaster from the condition of things now 
existing, and think it should be averted if possible." Lieutenant-general 
Polk wrote : " I greatly fear the consequences of another engagement at 
this place on the ensuing day. We could now perhaps get off with some 
safety and with some credit if tlie affair was well managed. "(') 

Acting upon the advice of his subordinate officers. General Bragg re- 
treated in the night from Murfreesboro southward to Shelbyville and 
Tullahoma, both strong, defensive positions. 

Through tlie winter and spring and into the summer the Army of the 
Cumberland remained at Murfreesboro. There could be no marching in 
midwinter or spring, for there were frequent rains, the streams were all 
swollen, and the mud deep on all the roads. General Rosecrans was 
studying the country, obtaining information, and waiting for the organiza- 
tion of the army which was to move from Kentucky into Eastern Ten- 
nessee, under General Burnside (chapter xviii.). 

The Confederate army was behind Elk River, a stream which rises 
in the Cumberland Mountains, flows west to Duck River, and empties 
into the Tennessee. The railroad from Murfreesboro to Stevenson and 
Chattanooga crosses it at Wartrace, where General Bragg established his 
headquarters. Shelbyville is ten miles south-west of Wartrace, where 
25 



386 MAKCHING TO VICTORY. 

General Polk's corps was stationed. Tnllahoma is on the railroad eighteen 
miles south of Wartrace. It is the region of the Cumberland Mountains 
— a country broken and rugged — hills, valleys, mountains, streams, ravines, 
gorges — a section called the " barrens " by the country people. 

There are two turnpikes between Murfreesboro and Shelbyville — the 
Murfreesboro and tlie Eaglesville — fifteen miles apart, both excellent 
roads, surfaced with pounded stone. The other roads were muddy in the 
rainy season. Through the weejcs of June General Rosecrans was accumu- 
lating supplies. His cavalry had been increased during the spring, and 
the regiments were drilling every day. Up to this time the Confederate 
cavalry had been much more effective than that of the Union army. 

General Rosecrans had no intention of advancing to Shelbyville to 
send his troops against the strong intrenchments constructed by General 
Bragg. By a well-planned and admirably executed movement he turned 
the right flank of Bragg's army, and compelled the Confederates to aban- 
don the position which they had fortified and retreat across the Tennessee 
River to Chattanooga, from which Bragg had advanced eleven months be- 
fore to invade Kentucky ("' Drum-beat of the Nation," chap, xiv.) 

By his strategy Rosecrans had forced Bragg to abandon the State of 
Tennessee, but it carried the Confederates nearer their supplies, while the 
Union troops, in following, were increasing the distance between themselves 
and their base of supplies at Nashville, compelling Rosecrans to detail a 
large number of troops to guard the railroad. General Halleck in Wash- 
ington gave peremptory orders for Rosecrans to push on ; but the railroad 
liad to be repaired, and food brought from Nashville, before the army 
could advance. The country was poor and the Confederates had exhausted 
its resources. Rosecrans moved on to the Tennessee River, and planned a 
new campaign — the most difficult of all — to cross that stream and compel 
the Confederate army to abandon Chattanooga. 

The Tennessee River, flowing from the east for a long distance, has a 
general south-western course. The village of Chattanooga, on its southern 
bank, in 1863 contained about one thousand Ave hundred inhabitants. It 
is situated in a mountain gate-way. Lookout Mountain is a long, high 
ridge lying in part parallel to the river, rising two thousand four hun- 
dred feet above the level of the sea, and presents on its northern face 
an almost perpendicular bluff ; but its eastern and western sides are more 
sloping and partially wooded. 

Between Lookout and the Tennessee is a lower ridge, portions of which 
are called the Raccoon Mountains, and other portions Sand Mountains. 
Eastward of Lookout is Missionary Ridge, twenty-five miles long. West 



FROM MUEFREESBORO TO CHICKAMAUGA. 



389 



Chickamanga Creek flows along its eastern base and empties into the 
Tennessee at Chattanooga. East of the creek is still another ridge, called 
Pigeon Mountain. 

The whole country is one of long mountain ranges lying parallel to 
each other, with streams flowing northward to the Tennessee and south- 
ward to the Coosa, whose waters flow into the Gulf of Mexico. 

The railroad to Atlanta runs due east from Chattanooga five miles, 
bends south-west, crosses the Georgia line just above the town of Eing- 
gold, and then runs on to Dalton, where it forms a junction with the rail- 
road coming down from Knoxville, Eastern Tennessee. 




oJilton 3IAP OF 

KENTUCKY & TENNESSEE. 







Perryville 

Xebanon^ 

Somerset /^ ^ fli'f^^'S^'^ 



>,/'/■ 









ov'^'" 



"While General Rosecrans was preparing to move against Bragg, a 
Union army under General Burnside was marching from Louisville 
through Kentucky south-east to gain possession of East Tennessee. 

General Bragg at Chattanooga Avas in a much stronger position than 
at Tullahoma. The Tennessee River, wide and deep, protected his front. 
To turn his right flank Rosecrans would be compelled to make a long 
march across several mountain ranges, along poor roads, and then would 
be obliged to cross tlie Tennessee. He would be far from his base of 
supplies. If he attempted to turn his left flank he must first cross the 
Tennessee, then ascend and descend two or three mountain ranges through 
gaps wide apart. 



390 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



The problem before Rosecrans was a movement wliicli would compel 
Bragg to retire from Chattanooga. How could that be done ? Certainly 
not by attempting to bridge the Tennessee, where all of Bragg's cannon 
M'ould liurl shot, shell, and canister upon the Engineer Corps while placing 
their pontoons. He did not wish to fight a battle except upon ground 
of his own choosing. He determined to cross the Tennessee River and 
the mountain ranges, and then threaten Bragg's conmiunications with 
Atlanta — the railroad over which he received his supplies. The army 
M-as to move from different points below Chattanooga. Crittenden's 
corps, after crossing, was to advance up the southern bank of the river 
ujjon Chattanooga, while Thomas and McCook were to climb Raccoon 
and Sand ridges by different routes, descend into Lookout Yalley, ascend 
Lookout Ridge, pass through gaps, and descend the other side — Thomas 

upon the little town of Lafay- 
ette and McCook upon Sum- 
merville, twenty miles farther 
south. 

It was believed that Bragg 
would retreat from Chattanoo- 
ga, and that Crittenden's corps 
could take possession of it and 
move down the Chipkamauga 
Yalley and join the other two 
corps. 

The gap through which 
Thomas would cross Lookout 
Ridge was twenty- six miles 
south of Chattanooga, while 
the gap which McCook would 
utilize was twenty miles south 
of Thomas, thus making it for- 
ty-six miles from Crittenden to 
McCook. 
The first thing to be done was to deceive Bragg as to the real inten- 
tions. To accomplish this General Hazen, of Crittenden's corps, with his 
own briirade and Wagner's and Wilder's brigades of mounted infantry 
and Minty's brigade of cavalry, ci-ossed Walden's Ridge in Tennessee and 
marched eastward to Foe's Tavern. The cavalry galloped along the river, 
made their appearance at all the fords as if to cross. General Wilder 
placed his artillery in position and opened fire upon the town, whereupon 




ROSECRANS S MOVEMENT TO CHICKAMAUGA. 



FROM MURFEEESBORO TO CHICKAMAUGA. 391 

Bragg removed his supplies, and ordered Anderson's brigade, which was 
guarding the river at Bridgeport, to leave that point and hasten up the 
river. For more than one hundred miles eastward of Chattanooga Union 
troops appeared upon the bank of the river, which led Bragg to con- 
clude that the crossing of the Union armj would be somewhere above the 
town. 

While the cavalry and Hazen's command were thus making feints, 
General Burnside, after a long and toilsome march across the Cumberland 
Mountains, reached Knoxville, as we shall see in another chapter, compel- 
ling General Buckner, who was there commanding a Confederate force of 
nearly twenty thousand, to evacuate the place. 

Beinforcements were hastening to Bragg — -Bnckner from East Ten- 
nessee ; troops came from Johnston's army in Mississippi ; Confederate 
soldiers who had been paroled by Grant at Yicksburg, in violation of the 
agreement at the time of their surrender, were ordered to hold positions 
in Mississippi, relieving brigades which were sent to Bragg. Hood's and 
McLaws's divisions of Longstreet's corps, from Lee's army in Virginia, 
numbering fifteen thousand, were on their way, but had not arrived. 

On Angnst 21st Rosecrans's army, after marching across the Cum- 
berland Mountains, was on the banks of the Tennessee, stretched out 
nearly one hundred and fifty miles. A portion of the pontoons had ar- 
rived, but not enough to build all the bridges needed. At one of the 
crossings the river was two thousand seven hundred feet wide, at the nar- 
rowest place it was one thousand six hundred feet. General Brannan's 
division constructed rafts, and the soldiers piled their clothes and guns, 
knapsacks and cartridge-boxes on them, and by wading and swimming 
reached the other shore. One division crossed in small boats. The cross- 
ings were at Shell Mound, twenty-five miles below Chattanooga, at Bridge- 
port, ten miles farther down, and Caperton's Ferry, ten miles below 
Bridgeport, opposite Stevenson's. A trestle-bridge was constructed, involv- 
ing great labor. 

General Bragg was informed by a citizen on the 30th that the Union 
army had crossed the Tennessee, and was moving south. Q He saw that 
it was an attempt to get between his army and Atlanta, his base of sup- 
plies, and began to withdraw his troops from Chattanooga towards Lafay- 
ette, east of the Pigeon Range. 

The Union troops moved on to Sand and Raccoon mountains, over 
which there were only narrow roads. Each regiment was provided with 
shovels and axes. The soldiers marched up the mountain-side, stacked 
their arms, and went to work improving the roads. Then the wagons and 



392 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

cannon, with horses doubled, began to wind up the zigzag way. Details 
of men were stationed at the steepest places to assist the struggling horses 
by lifting at the wheels or pushing behind. A soldier with a block of 
wood followed each wagon to trig the wheels. Day and night they toiled. 
"When they reached the top of the mountain they had to construct a road 
down the other side. It was a difficult descent for the heavy teams. The 
wheels were chained, but the hills were steep and there were sharp turns. 
Some of the w\agons were upset, and so badly broken that they were aban- 
doned. It took three days to cross the mountains and descend into Look- 
out Yalley, where Crittenden's corps turned north-east and marched tow- 
ards Chattanooga, while Thomas and McCook began the ascent of the 
Lookout Range by different roads. 

On the 9th of September, Crittenden, passing round the northern end 
of Lookout, entered Chattanooga, the last of the Confederates leaving 
as he advanced. A brigade was detailed to hold it, while the others 
marched towards Chickamauga. At that hour McCook was on the sum- 
mit of Lookout Hange, forty-six miles south of Chattanooga, and Thomas 
w^as also on the same range, more than twenty miles distant. Kosecrans 
had accomplished what he set out to do. He had gained Chattanooga 
without a battle. He might at that moment have withdrawn Thomas and 
McCook by ordering them to retrace their steps into Lookout Valley, fol- 
low Crittenden into Chattanooga, and out to Missionary Ridge, and thus 
have concentrated his army. He could then have built his bridges, brought 
up supplies, and been in position for a new movement, or waited for Bragg 
to attack him. Rosecrans believed that Bragg was retreating to Atlanta. 
He did not know that Longstreet's corps was on its way from Virginia. 
The despatches which came from General Halleck in Washington were 
misleading. This came August 20th : " It has been reported for some 
days that some portion of Bragg's army has been sent to Richmond to 
reinforce Lee." This, September 6th : " There is no reason to suppose 
that any of Lee's troops have been detached except a small force at 
Charleston." On September 11th Halleck telegraphed, "It is report- 
ed here by deserters that a part of Bragg's army is reinforcing Lee." 
General Halleck and General Rosecrans both believed that the Con- 
federates were retreating. Bragg was sending men into Rosecrans's lines 
who pretended to be deserters, who said that he was retreating. This 
is what he says of his movements : " On the 9tli of September it was 
ascertained that a column, estimated at from four to eight thousand, 
had crossed Lookout Mountain by way of Stevens's and Cooper's gaps. 
Thrown off his guard by our rapid movements — apparently in retreat. 



FROM MURFREESBOEO TO CHICKAMAUGA. 395 

when in reality M'e had concentrated opposite his centre, and deceived 
by the information from deserters and others sent into his lines — the 
enemy pressed on his columns to intercept us, and thus exposed himself 

in detail."0 

On the evening of the ninth General Crittenden's division took posses- 
sion of Rossville, where the main road from Chattanooga southward crosses 
Missionary Ridge. At that hour Negley's division of Thomas's corps was 
moving down the eastern face of Lookout Mountain into a valley called 
McLemore's Cove, between Lookout and Pigeon mountains. It is formed 
by a spur which runs out from Lookout, and curves round to the east and 
north. Negley's skirmishers came upon a body of Confederates, who re- 
treated several miles. The next morning Negley moved on towards Dug 
Gap, in the Pigeon Range. As the soldiers came to the base of the mount- 
ain they looked up and saw a very steep ascent, and the mountain-side 
covered with a dense forest growth, and a ledge of limestone rock crown- 
ing the summit like the white crest of an ocean billow. Soon they came 
npon trees wdiich had been felled across the road, and upon Confederate 
pickets, who fired upon them. General Negley knew that there was an- 
other road across the mountain north, through Catlett's Gap, and pos- 
sibly that, while he was climbing the side towards Dug Gap, Bragg 
might be sending a force through Catlett's to fall upon his rear. The 
scouts came in with information that there was a large force of Con- 
federates on the mountain at Dug Gap, and another large body at Cat- 
lett's. General Baird's division of Thomas's corps had descended Look- 
out Mountain through Stevens's Gap, and was in the valley not far away. 
General Thomas had advanced cautiously — not so fast as Rosecrans 
wished ; but in the end, as we shall see, it was well for the army that he 
did not hasten. 

While Thomas was thus slowly advancing towards Dug Gap and the 
town of Dalton, east of it, McCook was far away to the south, marching 
towards the town of Alpine. Two of his divisions were across the range, 
and one west of it ; the cavalry was scouting the country towards Rome, 
when he discovered that Bragg was not retreating, but concentrating his 
army, intending to attack Rosecrans and destroy the widely separated corps 
one after the other. On the 10th of September the Union army was in a 
perilous position. From Rossville General Wood, with two brigades, ad- 
vanced south to Lee & Gordon's mill. A negro told him that the whole 
Confederate army w^as on tlie other side of Chickamauga Creek, in the 
vicinity of Lafayette. General Wood drove the Confederate skirmishers 
before him, and at night, when he went into bivouac at the mill, he could 



396 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

see the whole country towards the town of Lafayette aglow with the Con- 
federate camp-fires. From Rossville Crittenden had marched, with Yan 
Cleve's and Palmer's divisions, eastward to Einggold, where they joined the 
brigades of cavalry under Wilder and Minty. The divisions of Crittenden's 
corps were widely se^^arated — the two divisions being twenty-four miles 
south-east from Chattanooga, and eight miles east of "Wood's two brigades 
at the mill. They were, by the nearest jDossible line of communication, 
seventy miles distant from McCook, and fifty miles from Thomas. Crit- 
tenden continued to advance from Einggold southward — the Confederates 
falling back towards Tunnel Hill, where the railroad passes through a tun- 
nel towards Dalton. Rosecrans did not know that by ordering Critten- 
den to make such a movement he was sending him to the rear of Bragg's 
whole army, reinforced by Breckinridge, and by fifteen thousand from 
Johnston. Going now south along Chickamauga Valley, w^e see Thomas 
on the east side of Lookout, and marching towards Pigeon Mountain, with 
Negley in advance, and Baird's division near enough to support him ; but 
he is isolated from Crittenden and from McCook. 

General Bragg, instead of permitting Rosecrans to still further separate 
his corps, instead of keeping up the delusion that he was retreating, deter- 
mined to attack Thomas by falling on Negley ; but that officer discover- 
ing what he -was intending to do, joined Baird, and both fell back towards 
Stevens's Gap, thus concentrating Thomas's corps. Bragg had ordered 
General Hind man to advance from Catlett's Gap and attack Negley's 
left flank ; and when the cannonade echoed along the valley, Cleburne was 
to advance from Dug Gap. The morning came; none of Hindman's 
cannon were heard. The forenoon passed; still no artillery. Courier 
after courier was sent to know the reason of the silence. 

It is not known why Hiiidman was not ready — Bragg does not inform 
us in his report; but he had said to Hindman, "If you find the enemy in 
such great force that it is not prudent to attack, then fall back through 
Catlett's Gap to Lafayette." At three o'clock Hindman's guns began to 
play, and Cleburne advanced. 

Two companies of the Nineteenth Illinois, of Negley's division, were 
behind a wall. When Cleburne's line came on suddenly the wall w^as 
all aflame, and thirty of Cleburne's men went down. The next moment 
two of Negley's guns on a hill in the rear began to hurl shells into 
the advancing column, which came to a stand -still. Cleburne saw 
that Negley and Baird could not be successfully assailed, and withdrew 
his troops.Q 

General Bragg planned another movement. He saw that Crittenden's 



FROM MURFREESBORO TO CHICKAMAUGA. 397 

corps was divided ; that General Wood, witli two Union brigades, was at 
Lee & Gordon's mill, while Palmer's and Yan Clove's divisions were eight 
miles east, advancing from Ringgold. It would be easy to annihilate 
Wood, and then turn round and crush Crittenden's two divisions at Ring- 
gold. Having done this, he could then wheel in the other direction and 
strike Thomas. General Polk's corps was only three miles from Lee & 
Gordon's mill. He sent this message to Polk : " You have a fine oppor- 
tunity of crushing Crittenden in detail, and I hope that you will avail 
yourself of it to-morrow morning." It was issued at six o'clock on the 
evening of September 12th. Bragg became very earnest, and sent two 
other messages in the evening, ordering Polk to attack at daylight. He 
w^as surprised to receive this message from Polk just before midnight : " I 
have taken up a strong position for defence, but need reinforcements." 
Bragg wrote in reply, "Do not defer your attack. Success depends 
upon the promptness of your movement. Biickner's corps will be in sup- 
porting distance." 

The Confederate commander-in-chief was ten miles distant from Polk, 
and did not know that while he was writing these despatches Crittenden 
was turning back from Ringgold, and marching west to join Wood at the 
mill. Polk had discovered it, and so had called for reinforcements, doubt- 
less expecting that Crittenden was about to attack him. Daylight ap- 
peared in the east September 13th ; Bragg heard no cannon. The sun 
came up; still no sound of battle. He was impatient, called for his 
horse, rode to Polk's headquarters, and found that oflicer quietly eating 
his breakfast, his troops in bivouac, and no arrangements made for bring- 
ing on the battle. General Bragg gave utterance to very bitter words. 
In his report he charged Polk with having overturned all his plans. 

But the question arises why Bragg, now that he was himself on the 
ground, did not attack. He had half of his army there. He greatly out- 
numbered Crittenden, but he issued no orders — did nothing for four days. 
Probably it will never be known just why he waited. Not till the ITth 
did he make any movement, during which time a great change was taking 
place in the position of the Union troops. 

On the 12tli Rosecrans had discovered that, instead of retreating, the 
Confederates were concentrating. He saw that the pleasant stories told 
by pretended deserters were lies; that Bragg was intending to cut him 
up piecemeal ; that there must be rapid marching to join Crittenden 
and secure his connection with Chattanooga. Couriers rode with orders 
to McCook, who was at Alpine, to make all haste northward. McCook 
had already sent his trains back to the top of Lookout Range. The 



398 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

order reached him at midnight of tlie 13th. He could not march by 
the sliortest road, for it was held by the Confederates, but must recross 
Lookout Mountain into Lookout Valley, and then reclimb the mountain 
to Stevens's Gap before he could join Thomas. Not till McCook was 
Avell on his way did Kosecrans dare to give orders for Thomas's corps to 
move towards Crittenden. 

It seems very strange that Bragg, with his army concentrated at La- 
fayette, should have waited so long, with Crittenden isolated and alone so 
near him. Possibly it was for the arrival of Longstreet's corps, which was 
on its roundabout way through Georgia, but which was belated because 
the railroads were so badly worn. Possibly there was another reason why 
he waited. He not only had a violent temper, but was very firmly set 
in his opinions. Lieutenant Baylor reported on the evening of the 12th 
to General Hill that McCook's corps was at Alpine. Hill, the next day, 
rej)eated it to Bragg. " Lieutenant Baylor lies ; there is not a L^nion 
infantry soldier south of us," said the Confederate commander.Q But he 
changed his mind the next morning, and said that the Union troops were 
there, when at that moment McCook was marching as hard as he could 
to join Thomas. It is plain that Bragg did not comprehend Rosecrans's 
movements. 

On the morning of the 13th Thomas was in McLemore's Cove, thir- 
teen miles from the three divisions of Crittenden. On the 12th, in the 
evening, McCook had received Rosecrans's order recalling him from his 
perilous position, but it took him till the 17th to reach McLemore's Cove. 
All the while Bragg was concentrating his troops to move north, cross the 
Chickamauga, and gain the Rossville road. 

They were anxious hours to Rosecrans, but a timely reinforcement ar- 
rived at Chattanooga — the troops of General Gordon Granger, which 
had been guarding the railroad to Nashville. New regiments had been 
sent from the North to do that work, relieving Granger, who came out 
from Chattanooga on the evening of the 13th, and encamped at Ross- 
ville. 

On the same evening Hood's Confederate division of Longstreet's 
corps arrived from Virginia, followed by Gregg's and McNair's brigades 
from Atlanta, and which were united to Johnson's brigade, forming a 
division ; and yet with these fresh troops, with the several corps of the 
Union army still widely separated, Bragg did not make any movement. 
What he was waiting for, what his plans were, whether he had any definite 
plan, does not appear in his report. Had he fallen upon Crittenden as he 
might have done on the 1-ith, Rosecrans would have been in danger of 



FROM MURFREESBORO TO CHICKAMAUGA. 399 

being cut up in detail. 'Not till the ev^ening of the 17th did he issue or- 
ders for the flanking movement which he hoped would cut off Rosecrans 
from Chattanooga by crossing the Chickamauga below Lee & Gordon's 
mill. The stream at that season of the year, with the earth dry and 
parched, could be forded almost anywhere. 

The army of Bragg, on the 18th of September, comprised, as nearly as 
can be ascertained, Hfty-eight thousand infantry and artillery, eight thou- 
sand four hundred cavalry, and about two hundred cannon — a total of 
nearly sixty-seven thousand troops. 

The Union array comprised fifty -seven thousand infantry and artil- 
lery, seven thousand five hundred mounted troops, and one hundred 
and seventy pieces of artillery — in all, sixty -four thousand five hundred 
men. 

On the morning of the 18th the Confederate movement began, the 
brigades marching north and reaching Chickamauga Creek to find Union 
cavalry, supported by detachments of infantry, ready to dispute their 
crossing. There was skirmishing through the day, but the battle which 
Bragg intended should begin on the 18th was contests between the skir- 
mishers or advanced brigades, and the sun went down with only six Con- 
federate brigades across the Chickamauga. Not till in the evening when 
General Steedman, of Granger's corps, and Minty and Wilder of the cav- 
alry, and Wood at Gordon's mill, informed Rosecrans of the appearance 
of Confederate troops at all the fords, did the Union commander com- 
prehend just what Bragg was intending to do. It was eleven o'clock 
at night when Thomas, with three divisions, began his march northward 
from Crawfish Spring. He passed in rear of Crittenden to gain the roads 
leading from Rossville southward to the Chickamauga, reaching a posi- 
tion in the morning on the farm of Mr. Kelley, east of the road leading 
from Rossville to Lee & Gordon's mill. Orders were sent at midnight 
to McCook to hasten northward, but the trains of Thomas's corps blocked 
the way. The road cleared at last, McCook hastened on, closing upon 
Crittenden. So on the morning of September 19th McCook was on the 
right, Crittenden in the centre, Thomas on the left, forming a line of bat- 
tle upon ground which Rosecrans had never seen till that morning, of 
which he knew nothing except that he could see there were farm clear- 
ings, patches of woodland, creeks whose beds were dry, knolls covered 
with scrubby oaks, ravines bordered by tangled thickets, with a few main 
travelled roads, but many narrow paths leading from farm to farm. Upon 
such ground he must accept battle from a foe outnumbering him by sev- 
ei'al thousand ; troops which have made no long marches, but which liave 



400 MAKCHING TO VICTORY. 

been resting, while his have toiled over mountain ranges, and have been 
marching for life to gain the position which Thomas has at last secured. 

The Union trains had turned north, crossed Missionary Ridge, and were 
safe in Chattanooga Yalley. 



NOTES TO CHAPTER XIX. 

(') Southern Bivouac magazine, quoted in National Tribune. 

('^) General Rosecrans, in National Tribune. 

O Bragg's Report. 

{*) Idem. 

(5) Genei-al D. H. Hill, Century Magazine, April, 1887, p. 946. 



CHICKAMAUGA. 401 



CHAPTER XX. 

CHICKAMAUGA. 

'^r^HERE are two roads leading from Chattanooga Yalley across Mission- 
-*- ary Ridge towards Chickainanga — the Lafayette road throngli Ross- 
ville Gap, and the Dry Valley road through McFarland's Gap, two and 
one-half miles fartlier south. Several roads lead eastward from the La- 
fayette road along the east side of Missionary Ridge to fords and bridges 
across Chickaniauga Creek. The first ford north of Lee's mill, a mile dis- 
tant, is Dalton's ; Smith's is a half mile farther ; a half mile beyond that 
is Alexander's Bridge; a little farther is another ford; beyond that are 
Reed's and Dyer's Bridges. The distance in a straight line fromthe mill 
to Dyer's Bridge is about iive miles. On the Dry Valley road, about a 
mile and a half from the mill, is the house of Widow Glen, where Rose- 
crans established his headquarters. 

At sunrise, then, on the morning of the 19th, the Union infantry ex- 
tended from Crawfish Spring on the right to Kelley's farm on the left. 
The cavalry held the road leading from Dyer's Bridge to Rossville,(') and 
had been doing great service during the night. At every bridge and ford 
across the Chickaniauga they had confronted Bragg's divisions, holding 
them in check. " The resistance," says Bragg in his report, " offered by 
the enemy's cavalry, and the difficulties arising from the bad and narrow 
country roads, caused unexpected delays." 

When General Walker's division of Bragg's army reached Alexander's 
Bridge, they found Wilder's mounted infantry on the opposite bank with 
light artillery, which fired so effectively that Walker could not cross, and, 
under cover of the fire, Wilder's troops rushed down to the bridge and set 
it on fire. 

From daylight till nine o'clock Thomas's wearied men had a chance 
to rest, but at that hour the Confederates began to advance. 

General Bragg had five corps — Longstreet's, Walker's, Buckner's, Polk's, 
and Hill's. On the morning of the 19th only Hood's division of Long- 
street's corps had joined the army ; but at two o'clock in the afternoon a 
long train of cars arrived bringing the brigades of McLaws's division and 
General Longstreet. The newly arrived troops, before leaving the cars, 
26 



402 MARCHING TO VICTOKY. 

could hear the rolls of musketry and the roar of the artillery, and could 
see the battle-clouds rising over the forest along the valley of the Chicka- 
mauga. 

General Polk was to begin the attack on Thomas's left. Kearly the 
whole of his corps was across the creek. The Confederate cavalry was 
advancing on the right, with Walker's troops following. 

General Thomas sent Croxton's briofade of Brannan's division against 
Forrest, who was driven, but Ector's brigade was sent in by Walker, 
whereupon Thomas ordered up the whole of Baird's division, driving the 
Confederates. 

This was not heavy fighting, but, on the part of Bragg, a movement to 
discover what there was between his right wing and Rossville. He had 
hoped to find only a small force blocking the road, which he would sweep 
away as if it were but a cobweb. If he had been three hours earlier he 
would have had little opposition, but he was too late. He set himself 
for serious work on his right. He must obtain possession of the La- 
fayette road, and ordered up Cheatham's division to aid Walker's, which 
advanced on Baird, striking his left flank, and threw two of the Union 
brigades into confusion and driving them towards Kelley's house, and 
capturing artillery. 

Thomas calmly beheld the discomfiture. A messenger rode with 
orders to Keynolds and Johnson, who were south of Kelley's house, and 
where Cheatham's men, in their exultation, with wild yells were proclaim- 
ing their success; but they soon found themselves hurled back in con- 
fusion and forced to leave behind the cannon which they had captured 
from Baird. Q 

Stewart's division of Bragg's army hastened to take part in the melee 
— Clayton's, Brown's, and Bates's brigades ; but one after the other were 
repulsed by the fire of Reynolds, Palmer, and Johnson. 

In a few minutes four hundred of Clayton's men fell ; Brown and 
Bates advanced close upon Thomas's lines, but were turned back with 
great loss. 

The battle began to roll up the creek. Hood and Johnson advanced 
against Van Cleve and Davis, and Bragg sent in part of Preston's division 
against Wood. 

From two till four the contest was sharp. Van Cleve was driven, and 
Negley was brought down from the right to take his place. 

Hood, Johnson, and Preston were driving on with so much vigor that 
Kosecrans's line was pushed back nearly to Rosecrans's headquarters, 
around which the shells were constantly exploding; but Sheridan came 



CHICKAMAUGA. 405 

down from the extreme right and stopjDed the onward movement of the 
Confederates. 

In tlie centre Van Cleve had been driven, and Palmer's left flank ex- 
posed ; bnt Hazen moved in and made the line good once more. He 
planted twenty cannon on a knoll, which poured a destructive fire upon 
Cheatham, who was moving up to fall upon Reynolds. 

The Union troops supposed that the conflict for the day was over, 
when Cleburne and Preston made a sudden attack upon Johnson's and 
Baird's divisions, but were repulsed, and night closed in, both armies lying 
down upon the field to renew the struggle in the morning. 

Bragg had not accomplished what he had set out to do — to crush Rose- 
crans's left and gain the Lafayette road. The battle began on Kelley's 
farm, and there the last shots were fired as night came on, with the rain 
falling upon the -wearied armies. The contest had been severe, but it was 
only tlie prelude to one of the great battles of the war. 

Through the night Rosecrans withdrew McCook to the foot-hills in 
front of McFarland's Gap, and made his line of battle shorter and much 
stronger. The soldiers of Thomas's corps cut down trees, and with fence- 
rails constructed a line of breastworks. 

It is easy to see, after a battle has been fought, what might have been 
done, but a commander must decide upon the instant what to do. Gen- 
eral Rosecrans, when the battle closed at eight o'clock in the evening of 
the 19th, might have sent his trains and the wounded through McFar- 
land's and Rossville gaps, then leaving a strong skirmish line have fallen 
back to Missionary Ridge, and taken a position which would have enabled 
him to repel an assault from any quarter. Such a position would have 
given his artillery great advantage. The western slope of Missionary 
Ridge is sharp, the eastern not so abrupt. Tlie movement could have 
been made, and there would have been time for the erection of breast- 
works, for Bragg would have been compelled to make new dispositions of 
his troops before attacking. He chose instead to meet the shock on the 
field where the battle had begun. 

For the renewal of the conflict Bragg divided his army into two wings, 
the right under Polk, composed of Walker's, Hill's, Breckinridge's, Cheat- 
ham's, and Cleburne's troops. The left wing was under Longstreet — com- 
posed of his own, Buckner's, and Hindman's troops. His plan was to have 
Polk turn Thomas's left flank, and when Breckinridge gained possession 
of the road leading to Rossville, Longstreet was to fall upon McCook 
and Crittenden ; Polk was to attack at daylight. As the morning dawned 
Brajrg and his staff-officers were in their saddles, expecting every moment 



406 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

to hear the rattle of musketry from Polk's troops ; but no sound broke the 
stillness of the morning save the rumbling of army-wagons and the hum 
that rose from the bivouac of the two armies. A half hour passed ; Bragg 
was impatient ; an hour went by and still no sound. 

" Ride to General Polk," he said to Major Lee, " and ascertain the rea- 
son of his delay, and urge him to attack at once." It took Major Lee half 
an hour to find Lieutenant-general Polk, who was eating his breakfast, 
and reading a newspaper. He and his staff-officers were in full uniform. 
The officer delivered his message. Polite and courtly the reply : " Please 
inform the general commanding that I have already ordered General Hill 
into action ; that I am waiting for him to begin ; and do please say to 
General Bragg that my heart is overflowing with anxiety for the attack — 
with anxiety, sir." Major Lee returned and reported. (') 

The historian who has written an account of the war from the Con- 
federate side has not recorded the exact words spoken by General Bragg, 
but says that he was very angry, and used many very bitter expressions, 
some of which were not in accordance with the commandments of the 
Bible. 

It was eight o'clock when General Bragg came to General Hill, whose 
troops were getting their rations for the day. " Why did not you begin 
the attack at daylight ?" he asked, very much out of temper. " This is the 
first that I have heard of any such order,"(') Hill replied. "I found Polk 
reading a newspaper down by Alexander's Bridge, two miles from the line 
of battle, when he ought to have been fighting," said Bragg. Possibly he 
did not know that through negligence on the part of some one his orders 
had not been delivered. He was not liked by his troops, neither by his 
officers. No one cheered when he passed by. 

Are events happenings only? or is there a hand divine and unseen con- 
trolling human affairs ? How happened it that the easy-going Polk was 
placed in command of the Confederate right wing, where the utmost ener- 
gy was needed to carry out the plan ? and why w^as the resolute, energetic 
Longstreet, the hammerer, placed in command of the left ? It was Bragg's 
mistake, and an exhibition of his want of judgment. The right of his flank 
was the place where he wanted the thunder-bolts hurled upon Rosecrans. 
How happened it that Rosecrans, not knowing just what his opponent 
was intending to do, but only forecasting his probable movement, should 
select Thomas to hold the left of his line — the commander who, before 
sundown, was to acquire renown and a name which is to go down the 
ages — the "Rock of Chickamauga?" Whether it was a happening, or the 
evolution of law, or the ordering of a divine Providence, the assignment 



CHICKAMAUGA. 407 

of Tliomas to hold the left of the Union army had much to do with the 
final issue of the conflict, as we shall see. 

It was between seven and eight o'clock when the Confederate skir- 
mishers in front of Thomas's left began to advance. After a little firing 
Breckinridge's and Cleburne's divisions assailed Baird's and Beatty's bri- 
gades with such force that they were driven, and the Confederates were in 
possession of the road to Rossville, but only for a few moments, for Thomas 
ordered up two brigades — one of Brannan's and one of Wood's — and 
Breckinridge's troops were driven in confusion. 

"While thus trying to gain the rear of Thomas, Bragg hurled Stewart, 
Johnson, and Walker upon Palmer's and Reynolds's Union divisions in 
the centre. " The first attempt," says Thomas, " was continued at least 
two hours, making assault after assault with fresh troops, which were met 
by my troops with a most determined coolness and deliberation. Having 
exhausted his utmost energies to dislodge us, he apparently fell back 
entirely from our front, and we were not disturbed again till towards 
night." 

The Confederate troops were in a semicircle around Thomas, Breckin- 
ridge and Cleburne on the right, facing nearly south. Walker south-west, 
and Cheatham nearly west ; but not an inch could they move his lines. 
The stubbornness of Thomas's men was upsetting all of Bragg's calcula- 
tions. Polk was to have been the moving column and Longstreet the 
pivot ; in other w^ords, the Confederate lines were to swing like a door, 
Longstreet being the hinge. The door would not swing because Thomas 
could not be driven. IN'othing had been accomplished, and the Confed- 
erate divisions were being cut to pieces. The Confederate general, D. H. 
Hill, says : " While Breckinridge was thus alarming Thomas for his left, 
Cleburne was having a bloody fight with the forces behind the breast- 
works, L. E. Polk's brigade was driven back, and Wood's Confederate bri- 
gade, on the left, had almost reached Poe's house on the Chattanooga road, 
when he w^as subjected to a heavy enfilading fire, and driven back with 
great loss." 

General Thomas, seeing what Bragg was attempting to do, called upon 
Tvosecrans for reinforcements, who withdrew Lytle's and Walworth's bri- 
gades from McCook over on the extreme right, and sent tliem on the run 
to assist the left. This weakened the line in front of Longstreet, who 
up to that moment had not made any determined effort. 

Bragg, seeing that lie could not push Thomas from his position, de- 
cided to assault all along the line. This the order : " Let every officer 
advance his command at once."Q Longstreet, beginning on his right, 



408 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

had Stewart, B. E. Johnson, Hood, Kershaw, and Preston. Stewart was 
the first to become engaged, but was repulsed with great loss. General 
Thomas sent an aide to Roseerans, to tell him of the great pressure upon 
him, and asking for support. The officer, as he rode towards Rosecrans's 
lieadquarters, saw what lie thought was a gap between Wood's and Reyn- 
olds's divisions. He did not see that Brannan had formed his brigades in 
the rear in echelon — tliat is, one brigade behind and partly overlapping 
the one in front. They were really in line and just where they ought to be, 
and the aide had arrived at a wrong conclusion. He informed Rosecrans 
that there was an open space between Reynolds's and "Wood's divisions. 
What little things are the turning-points of great events! 

We come to the decisive moment of the battle of Chickamauga. Gen- 
eral Rosecrans, acting on the information, directed one of his staff-ofiicers 
to write this despatch to General Wood : " The general commanding 
directs that you close up on Reynolds as far as possible, and siipport him." 
General McCook was with Wood, and they discussed the meaning of the 
order. Brannan was between Wood and Reynolds, but a little back from 
the main line. How could Wood close %ip on Reynolds when Brannan 
was between? How could he support Reynolds? To support him he 
must be behind him. Only by marching in rear of Brannan could, he be 
in position to support Reynolds. To make such a movement would leave 
a wide opening between Brannan and Davis, the next division in line 
towards the left. But there was the order, and Wood gave what he 
thought was the correct interpretation. It was blind and contradictory, 
because Rosecrans had not been rightly informed of the position of the 
divisions. Wood's men filed out in rear of Brannan, moved upon the 
double-quick to the left in rear of Reynolds, leaving a wide gap in the 
line at the most critical moment of the battle — just when Longstreet was 
ordering forward his divisions. In front of the open space was Hood's 
division, which came so near to gaining Little Round Top at Gettysburg. 
Hood beheld the withdrawal of Wood with glee. Now was his time. 
Up through the forest swept the troops wdio had fought on the Penin- 
sula, at Manassas, which hurled Sedgwick's brigade back from the Dunker 
church at Antietam — veterans who were led by a brave commander, and 
who went with a rush towards the door wdiich liad so unexpectedly been 
opened for them. If there had been a consultation and agreement be- 
tween the Confederate and Union commanders, the withdrawal of Wood 
could not have been more opportune for Bragg. There were only two 
divisions of Union troops to the right of the gap — Davis's and Sheridan's ; 
ail the others had been sent to reinforce Thomas. Long-street outnuni- 



CHICKAMAUGA. 409 

bered them two to one. Hood assailed Brannan on his ricrht, and Davis 
on his left. It was not merely the entering of a wedge : it was more like 
the pouring of a flood through a break in the levees of the Mississippi. 
There was nothing in front of Hood to oppose his onward rush ; and not 
only his, but the whole of Longstreet's troops — Stewart's, Kershaw's, 
Johnson's, Hindman's, and Preston's — cutting off the five Union brigades 
of McCook from the rest of the army, which compelled that commander 
to retreat to save his troops from being captured. 

And now came the effort to fill the crevasse so suddenly and unex- 
pectedly made. Walworth's and Lytle's brigades of Sheridan's divis- 
ion, which had been sent to Thomas, went upon the run back from the 
right. As they came through the woods, the soldiers beheld the wag- 
ons, artillery, and infantry retreating in confusion, followed by the exult- 
ant Confederates ; but resolutely they wheeled into line. " If we are to 
die, we will die here," were the words of Lytle. A bullet struck him, 
but he still sat in his saddle. " Charge !" he shouted, and his men rushed 
on ; but though bravely done, they were so few that it was as a hand- 
ful of straw thrown against a swirling flood. There was terrific fight- 
ing. Lytle's men had a deep and tender love for him. At Murfrees- 
boro they presented him with a Maltese cross studded with diamonds and 
emeralds. They would die for him if need be. Three more bullets 
struck him. His officers saw him reeling, and caught him in their arms. 
Two who were laying him down were killed, and one wounded, but they 
placed him beneath a tree. He handed them his sword ; he would not 
have it fall into the hands of the enemy. Years before, he wrote of 
death, as in prophecy of his own end : 

"On some lone spot, where, far from home and friends, 
The way-worn pilgrim on the turf reclining, 
This life and much of grief together ends." 

A great heart had ceased to beat. The Confederates came upon his 
lifeless body, and beheld him lying there in the beauty and glory of a vig- 
orous manhood, with a smile upon his face. He had given his life to his 
country. He was one of Nature's poets, and has left behind him one 
poem, which will ever charm by its beauty and pathos — " Tlie Death of 
Home's great Triumvir, Mark Antony :" 

"I am dying, Egypt, dying; 

Ebbs the crimson life-tide fast, 
And the dark Plutonian shadows 
Gather on the evenina; blast. 



410 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

"Let thine arms, O Queen, enfold me; 
Hush thy sobs and bend tliine ear; 
Listen to the great heart secrets 
Thou, and thou alone, must hear. 

" Though my scarred and veteran legions 
Bear their eagles high no more, 
And my wrecked and scattered galleys 
Strew dark Actium's fatal shore — 

"Though no glittering guards surround me, 
Brought to do thy master's will, 
I must perish like a Roman — 
Die the great Triumvir still." 

Nobler the ending of his life on the field of Chickamauga than that 
of the Triumvir of the Seven-hilled City — that, the snuffing out of ambi- 
tion and intrigue ; this, death that his country might be united evermore. 

Very pathetic this story told by a Union officer, who on Saturday 
night saw a soldier sitting on a log, with tears rolling down his cheeks. 

" AVhat is the matter ?" he asked. 

The soldier held up a photogniph. " That is my wife and my chil- 
dren," he said. 

" Yes, and I too have a wife and the same number of children." 

" But, general, you are an officer, getting heavy pay ; you could resign 
if you wished to ; or if you were to be killed, there would be something 
left for them. I am a soldier ; I cannot resign. If I am killed, who will 
look after Maggie and the children ?" 

" Cheer up, comrade. I am not going to resign. I shall stay with you 
and the rest. We'll fight it out to the end, and go home together. Cheer 
up ; we shall l)oth see our loved ones again. "(') 

Twenty-four hours had passed. The officer and the soldier had been 
in the thick of the fight. The officer was falling back before the advan- 
cing Confederates when he came upon a prostrate form, and looked down 
into a face from which life had passed away — upon the form of a man 
whose heart had ceased its beating — the heart which had yearned to be- 
hold once more the dear ones far away. The fateful bullet had pierced 
not only the heart of the soldier but the photograph, which, morning, noon, 
and night, by the bivouac fire, upon the weary march, and in the tempest 
of battle, had been his solace. He too had given his life for his country. 

General Longstreet had formed his troops in columns of brigades, just 
as Napoleon arranged his at the battle of Marengo when he broke the 
line of the Austrian army. With Roseerans's line weakened by the with- 



CHICK AMAUGA. 413 

drawal from McCook and Crittenden of so many brigades to support 
Thomas, witli Wood's division taken from the line by the great mistake, 
Longstreet found it an easy matter to sweep all before him. At the 
moment of his advance Wood was moving north-east, and his rear bri- 
gade was thrown into confusion. Negley's division was struck so sud- 
denly that all semblance of order was lost. Not only the troops, but 
Rosecrans, together with Crittenden and McCook, with their staffs, were 
forced to flee before the onset of the Confederates. It was so unex- 
pected and unaccountable — like the rush of a wdiirlvvind — that the artil- 
lery had no time to limber up their pieces before their horses were going 
down in heaps, and the Confederates leaping upon the cannon with shouts 
and yells. 

It was a disaster so appalling that men who at other times were cool 
and brave lost their heads.(') General Negley, who had shown his bravery 
at Stone River, unfortunately ordered several batteries and regiments to 
the rear. Some officers who retained their self-possession refused to go, 
and tried to gather up their scattered commands, but several thousand 
troops straggled towards Rossville. Not so Brannan and Wood, who, 
though struck by the Confederates, brought their brigades into line. A 
moment before, they were marching towards the east, but now they faced 
Avest — Wood, Reynolds, and Brannan together j)Oured their volleys into 
the Confederate ranks, which, instead of pressing on after the retreating 
fugitives in the direction of Rossville, were obliged to wheel towards the 
east to meet their fire. The brigades of McCook, cut off from the rest of 
the army, were retreating towards McFarland's Gap. 

While Longstreet was thus driving on his troops, Walker's and John- 
son's Confederate divisions were attacking Palmer, but were repulsed with 
great loss. The new line formed by Wood and Brannan compelled Long- 
street to come to a halt, and reform his troops for an assault upon them. 
The brigades of Bushrod Johnson and Fatten Anderson advanced, but 
were cut to pieces. Longstreet followed up the attack with the divisions 
of Ilindman and Kershaw, and at the moment when these troops were 
gaining a position by which tiiey almost had Brannan and Wood at their 
mercy, let us go back to Rossville, six miles, and from two o'clock in tlie 
afternoon to eleven in the forenoon. 

General Gordon Granger commanded the reserve corps of Rose- 
crans's army, and had been ordered to hold Rossville. His headquarters 
were by the road-side on the summit of Missionary Ridge, a short dis- 
tance from the old house in which the Indian chief John Ross once lived. 
General Granger, when the haze lifted at ten o'clock and the sun burned 



414 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



away the fog, could see dust-clouds rising along the valley, marking the 
advance of the Confederates under Breckinridge and Hill to attack Thom- 
as's left. " They are concentrating over there, and there is where we ought 
to be," he said to one of his officers. The roar of battle came up from the 
valley, and the white clouds sailed away over the fields and forest. He 
walked to and fro, nervously pulling his beard. " Why does Kosecrans 




MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE H. THOMAS. 



keep us here ? There is nothing in front of us now. There is the battle." 
He pointed to the rising and increasing cloud. With Colonel Fullerton 
he climbed to the top of a hay-rick. The whole valley lay before them. 
The uproar was increasing. It was hard for Granger to see the signs of 
the conflict, to hear the thunder of the cannon, the rolls of musketry, and 
not be in the melee. He thrust his field-glass into its case. 



CHICKAMAUGA. 415 

" I am going over to Thomas, orders or no orders," he said.(') 

"And if jou go, it may bring disaster to the army, and you to a court- 
martial," said Colonel Fullerton. 

" There is nothing in front of us but rag, tag, and bobtail cavalry. Don't 
you see that Bragg is piling up his whole array on Thomas ? I am going 
to his assistance." 

He jumped from the hay-rick. He had three brigades — Dan McCook's, 
Steedman's, and Whitaker's. Leaving the first to hold the position where 
they were, he moved with the others towards the battle. 

While Granger was thus marching without orders, let us enter the 
Confederate lines and survey the state of affairs on that side. It was after- 
noon ; Longstreet was taking a lunch of baked sweet-potatoes. He was 
well satisfied with what his troops had accomplished, but he wanted to do 
more. They had captured twenty-seven pieces of artillery and a large 
number of prisoners, swept over Roseci'ans's headquarters, sent his right 
wing flying along the road towards McFarland's Gap ; but that body of 
Union troops — Reynolds's, Brannan's, and Wood's — which were blocking 
his way on the hill by Mr. Snodgrass's house, must be swept aside, and to do 
it he must have reinforcements. He called upon Bragg for more troops.f) 

" General Bragg wishes to see you," said a messenger, and Longstreet 
rode to the headquarters of the commander-in-chief. 

" I cannot give you any more troops," said Bragg, " for there is no 
fight in the troops of Polk's wing. ]^o troops except your own have any 
fight in them." 

General Longstreet says, " It is my opinion that Bragg thought at 3 p.m. 
that the battle was lost, though he did not say so positively." 

What a scene it was at that moment ! On the Confederate side, Bragg 
thought he had been defeated ; Polk's corps was dispirited ; Longstreet's 
divisions had swept all before them, but were resolutely confronted and 
brought to a stand-still. 

On the Union side the woods, fields, roads, and pastures were filled with 
the soldiers which had been routed by Longstreet's assault ; not only the 
troops, but the commander-in-chief, together with McCook and Crittenden 
— artillery, ammunition, and baggage trains — all were hastening towards 
McFarland's Gap and Possville. Officei's who had not lost their self-pos- 
session were trying to rally panic-stricken soldiers, who only laughed in 
their faces. Authority was gone, discipline lost. 

We are not to think that all the troops on the right had been demor- 
alized. On the contrary, Sheridan and Davis were on the Dry Yalley 
road, their regiments in line. Negley had turned about, so that there were 



416 MARCHING TO VICIX^RY. 

ten thousand men on tL;U rond wlio oonld have boon oonnted upon for 
effective work. 

General Rostx^rans anvi his chief of stall. General Gartield, together 
vrith MeCook and Crittenden, were on tJie I^ifayette ro;\d, riding towanls 
Rossvilk\ Koseorans, who had never l>efore tnwelkxi the road, saw tliat 
it was a strong position. He determined to place Thomas in command, 
and have him withdraw to that point, while he himself would go to 
Chattanooga to make prepanitions for the final withdrawal to that place. 
It is plain that if Bragg, according to Longstreet, thought the battle 
lost, so did Rosecrans. He did not comprehend that at that moment 
he might turn defeat into victorv ; that instead of issuing an order for 
Thomas to withdraw to Missionary Ridge, and himself riding in h.iste to 
Chattanooga, the time had come for him to liurl Sheridan, Davis, and 
Xegley u}x~»n Longstreet. The pluck which he had manifested at Stone 
River seemed to be wanting at the moment. Had those ten thousjind 
men in the Dry Valley road resolutely confronted lA)ngstreet when that 
officer was calling for help, and when Bragg thought the battle lost, there 
can be little doubt of the result — that Longstreet taken in flank would 
liave been driven over upon Polk, whose trooj^s had become dispirited 
by their inability to make any impression on Thomas. Instead of seiz- 
ing the opportune moment of striking a l:ist blow, Rosecrans rode to 
Chattanoogti. 

We have seen General Granger jumping down from the hay-rick and 
marching with Steedman's and Whifaker's brig:\des towards the pillar of 
cloud rising from the semicircle of fire where Thomas and his men were 
standing. It was a hearty shake of the hand given by Thomas to Gran- 
ger when he rode up. coming without oixlere to his assistance. At that 
moment Longstreet was getting ready to renew the assault upon Wood and 
Brannan. Thomas pointed to the Confederates. 

'' Those men must be driven back," he said : ** can you do it T^'") 

" Yes ; my men are fresh, and they are just the fellows for that work. 
They are raw troops, and they don't know any better than to cliai^ up 
there.'' 

Granger gave Steedman the command of the two brigades. In two 
lines, with a cheer, they went upon the run through an old field, through 
weeds waist-high, across a narrow valley, and up the opposite ridge. The 
Confederate cannon opened upon them, and then the musketry. They 
dropped upon the ground, and the volleys went over them. With breath 
revived, they sprang to their feet. Louder than the din of battle came 
the command from Steedman, "Forward I" Witli a flag in his hand, he 



CniCKAMAUGA, 417 

led them on. Iliglit into tlie faces of the Confederates tliey ponred their 
volleys, so deadly that the ranks of the men in gray wavered, broke, and 
disappeared down the slope and over anotlier knoll. It was the work 
of but a few minutes, but during the time a fragment of a shell had car- 
ried away Grangers hat; Steed man had been wounded; Wjjitaker, com- 
manding Mitcheirs brigade, had also been wounded, and four staff-officers 
killed or wounded, and fearful havoc had been made in the lines, but it 
was a blow so powerful that it disarranged all of Longstreet's plans. A 
moment before, he had completed his arrangements for driving Wood and 
lirannan from their positions, but now his own troops were falling back, 
lie reformed them, and once more they advanced only to be repulsed by 
this new fresh force that had risen, as it were, from the ground in front 
of him. 

A Confederate general says : " Ilindman and Johnson organized a col- 
umn of attack upon the front and rear of the stronghold of Thomas. It 
consisted of the brigades of Deas, Manigault, Gregg, Anderson, and Mc- 
Nair. Three of the brigades had each live hundred men, and the other 
two were not so strong.'X") 

Another Confederate gives an account of the assault: "In a few min- 
utes a terrific contest ensued, which continued at close quarters. . . . Our 
troops attacked again and again with a courage worthy of their past 
achievements. The enemy fought with determined obstinacy, and repeat- 
edly repulsed us, but only to be again assailed. As showing the fierce- 
ness of the fijrht, I mention that on our extreme left the bayonet was used, 
and men also killed and wounded with clubbed muskets. A little after 
four the enemy was reinforced, and advanced with loud shouts, but was 
repulsed by Anderson and Kershaw.''("j 

It was half -past three when General Garfield, sent by Rosecrans, 
reached Thomas with the order placing him in command of the army, and 
naming Rossville as the point where the troops could be rallied. 

" It would be the ruin of the army to attempt to withdraw it now ; we 
must hold this position till night," was the reply. Fifteen minutes later a 
courier was riding towards Cliattanooga, with this despatch from Garfield : 

" Thomas has Brannan's, Reynolds's, Wood's, Palmer's, and Johnson's 
divisions liere, still intact after terrible fighting. Granger is here, close«l 
up with Thomas, and both are fighting terribly on the right. Sheridan is 
in, with the bulk of his division in ragged shaj^e, though plucky f<:.r fight. 
General Thomas holds his old ground of the morning. . . . The hardest fight- 
ing of the day is now going on. I hope General Thomas will l>e able to 
hold on here till night, and will not have to fall back farther than Ross- 
27 



418 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

ville, perhaps not any. All fighting men should be stopped there. I think 
we may retrieve the disaster of the morning. 

" I never saw better fighting than our men are now doing. The rebel 
ammunition must be nearly exhausted, ours fast failing. If we can hold 
out an hour more it will be all right. Granger thinks we can defeat them 
badly to-morrow, if our forces all come in. I think that you had better 
come to Kossville to-night and bring ammunition. "('^) 

Not till Garfield arrived did Thomas know what had happened on the 
right ; that Rosecrans had gone to Chattanooga. Undisturbed by the 
intelligence, and being now commander on the field, he quickly decided 
what to do : to stay where he was — to fight on till night, and then under 
cover of darkness retire to Rossville. The uproar was then beginning to 
die away. Hazen's and Grose's brigades of Palmer's division were, with 
Steed man, Brannan, Wood, and the troops which Sheridan had brought, 
repulsing every assault of Longstreet. 

The sun went down behind Missionary Ridge, throwing the shadows of 
the long, level outline of its summit over the valley. AVith its departing 
rays the cannons' brazen lips were cooling, the rolls of musketry becoming 
less frequent, though the cheers of the Confederates were ringing upon the 
evening air over the achievements of the day. As the darkness deej)ened, 
Thomas ordered his divisions one by one to retire, but to come into posi- 
tion at Rossville, along the eastern slope of Missionary Ridge ; and there 
at midnight the stout-hearted commander, who had stood immovable amid 
the storm, who had saved the army and rendered immortal service to his 
country, laid himself down calmly to sleep. So at midnight the army was 
upon the spot which, if it had been selected the night before, would in all 
probability have resulted in victory. 

It was four o'clock in the afternoon when Rosecrans reached Chatta- 
nooga. He had been in the saddle from five in the morning. Not a 
mouthful of food had passed his lips. For two weeks his active brain 
had been under the utmost tension. He had seen his right wing crushed 
under the impetuous advance of Longstreet. He was thinking how to se- 
cure the bridges across the Tennessee, and of rallying his scattered divis- 
ions behind breastworks around Chattanooga. The battle was lost. All 
the consequences of defeat rolled in upon him as he rode along the dusty 
road, reaching the town at last so exhausted that he could not dismount 
without assistance. He sent a despatch to Washington that his right wing 
had been crushed. President Lincoln read it with a heavy heart. Thou- 
sands of lives sacrificed ; the army in retreat, when victory was confidently 
expected ! 



CHICKAMAUGA. 419 

An officer dashed into Chattanooga as the sun was disappearing, with 
the message from Garfield. Rosecrans read it, swung his hat, and shouted, 
" Thank God ! The day is ours yet ! Go to your commands, gentlemen." 

General Wagner, who with a brigade of cavalry had been holding 
Chattanooga, moved out towards Rossville, stopping all stragglers ; but 
the passes across Missionary Ridge south of Rossville were open to Bragg, 
and Thomas advised the withdrawal of tlie army to the town. The Con- 
federates were in possession of the field where the battle had been fought — 
to that extent Bragg was victor ; but Rosecrans was holding Chattanooga, 
to gain which lie made the strategic movement, and the victory to Bragg 
was barren of results. The Confederate commander had lost nearly one- 
third of his army, and one more victory like it would have been his ruin. 
The loss of the Union army was one thousand six hundred and fifty 
killed, nine thousand five hundred wounded, and four thousand and five 
taken prisoners — nearly sixteen thousand. Rosecrans lost fifty-one cannon 
and more than fifteen thousand muskets. 

No complete return of the Confederate loss has ever been given ; but 
being the attacking party, Bragg's loss must have been much greater than 
Rosecrans's, and, from the partial returns, is supposed to have been nearly 
or quite twenty thousand, and fifteen pieces of artillery. 



NOTES TO CHAPTER XX. 

( ') Rosecrans's Report. 

( ^) Thomas's Report. 

( 3) Pollard, "The Lost Cause," p. 450. 

( •*) D. H. Hill, Century Magazine, April, 1887. 

( 5) Pollard, "The Lost Cause," p. 450. 

( ") Col. Morton C. Hunter, quoted in the National Tribune. 

( ■") Gen. H. V. Boynton, National Tribune. 

( **) Col. J. S. Fullerton, Granger's chief of stafif. Century Magazine, April, 1887. 

( 8) Longstreet, letter to D. H. Hill, Century Magazine, April, 1887. 

('") Col. J. S. Fullerton, Century Magazine, April, 1887. 

(") D. H. Hill, Century Magazine, April, 1887. 

('•) General Hindman's Report. 

C^) General Garfield's Report. 



420 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



CHAPTER XXL 

HOLDLXG CHATTANOOGA. 

GENERAL BRAGG, after the battle of Chickaniauga, was very angry 
with some of his officers. He arrested Lieutenant-general Polk and 
General Hindman for not executing their orders promptl3\ He was dis- 
pleased w4th General Breckinridge and with General Forrest, and so dis- 
liked Gen. D. H. Hill, who had been sent to him from the east by Jeffer- 
son Davis, that he directed him to return to Richmond. The Confederate 
newspapers criticised Bragg for his mismanagement of the battle, and for 
not following up the victory, and said that unless Rosecrans was driven 
ont of Chattanooga nothing would have been gained. General Bragg was 
holding Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, and could send shot 
and shell into Rosecrans's lines. He held the railroad which runs along 
the southern side of the river from Chattanooga to Bridgeport, compelling 
Rosecrans to bring all his supplies by a long, circuitous route over Wal- 
den's Ridge by narrow roads, a distance of sixty miles. 

With great satisfaction General Bragg could look down from his head- 
quarters on Missionary Ridge upon the white tents of the Union army, 
with the confident expectation that in a short time Rosecrans would be 
starved out, and compelled to retreat to Murfreesboro. He said : " Pos- 
sessed of the shortest route to his depot, and the one by which reinforce- 
ments must reach Iiim, we held him at our mercy, and his destruction was 
only a question of time." 

Bragg could afford to wait and let starvation do its work ; so the 
Confederate soldiers, outnumbering the Union, rested. The soldiers of 
both armies drew water from Chattanooga Creek, held conversations, ex- 
changed newspapers, and chaffed one another good-naturedly — the Con- 
federates looking for starvation to the Union army; the Union, for they 
knew not what. 

There was energetic action in the War Department at Washington when 
the news of the disaster at Chickamauga and the retreat of Rosecrans to 
Chattanooga came flashing over the wires. It was seen that the transfer 



HOLDING CHATTANOOGA. 421 

of Longstreet's corps from Lee's army to Bragg's had enabled tlie Confed- 
erates to strike a crushing blow. It was plain that to give up Chattanoo- 
ga would be a worse disaster. It must be held. The Army of the Cum- 
berland must be reinforced. The Secretary of War, Mr. Stanton, was a 
' man of great energy, and so was his Assistant Secretary, Thomas A. Scott, 
who, before the war, had been manager of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and 
who knew how many cars M'ould be required to transport one thousand 
men ; how many for a battery of artillery, with its horses. The Eleventh 
Corps, under Genei'al Howard, and the Twelfth Corps, under General 
Slocum, were with the Army of the Potomac on the Upper Rapidan at 
Raccoon Ford. The order for the movement of both corps was issued 
on September 23d, three days after the battle of Chickamauga, and on 
the 24th the cars were ready. The infantry and artillery, cannon, horses, 
equipments, tents — everything belonging to the two corps — were taken 
on board the trains and transported through Washington, Baltimore, Har- 
risburg, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, JSTashville, to the banks of the 
Tennessee — train following train without accident — men and horses re- 
ceiving regular i-ations, arriving October 4tli at Stevenson, Alabama. It 
was the foreknowledge, method, and energy of Thomas A. Scott which 
accomplished this. The two corjDS were placed under the command of 
General Hooker. They were halted at Stevenson and Bridgeport ; for 
had they been taken to Chattanooga they would have been a hinderance 
rather than a help to the Army of the Cumberland, with so little to eat, 
and the difHculties of obtaining supplies constantly increasing. 

General Grant was at Vicksburg. While Rosecrans was making his 
movement to Chickamauga, General Halleck sent a message to General 
Grant asking him to send troops to aid the Army of the Cumberland. 

Three divisions of Sherman's corps were encamped on the bank of 
Big Black River, twenty miles from Yicksburg, but in forty-eight hours 
Osterhaus's division was on board steamboats moving up the Mississippi 
to Mempliis, followed, as soon as steamboats could be obtained, by the 
other divisions. 

There was no telegraph between Yicksburg and Cairo, and all de- 
spatches had to be carried by steamboat. On October 10th General Grant 
received this despatch : " It is the wish of the Secretary of War that as 
soon as General Grant is able to take the field he will come to Cairo and 
report by telegraph." It was nearly noon when the message was placed in 
his hands, but before night he was on his way up the Mississippi with the 
members of his staff. He reached Cairo October 17th, where he received 
a despatch instructing liim to proceed at once to the Gait House, Louis- 



422 MAECHING TO VICTORY. 

ville. There was no railroad leading from Cairo directly to that city ; 
the quickest route was by rail north through Illinois to Mattoon, thence 
east to Indianapolis, then south to Louisville. At Indianapolis a very able 
and energetic man stepped on board tlie train — Edwin M. Stanton, Secre- 
tary of War, who had arrived from Washington by a special train, and 
who rode with General Grant the remainder of the journey. They never 
had met before. " Here are two orders," said Mr. Stanton ; " you may 
take your choice of them."(*) The orders made the whole of the country 
between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi River into one military de- 
partment under his command. One order left General Rosecrans in com- 
mand of the Army of the Cumberland ; the other relieved him, and con- 
ferred the command of that army upon General Thomas. General Grant 
chose the second. 

On the evening after their arrival at Louisville a despatch was sent 
by the Assistant Secretary of War, Charles A. Dana, who was with the 
army at Chattanooga, to Mr. Stanton informing him that General Rose- 
crans was just ready to abandon the place and retreat, and advising that 
peremptory orders be issued for holding it. General Grant sent a mes- 
sage informing Thomas that he had been appointed to command, aiid that 
Rosecrans had been relieved ; that Chattanooga must be held at all haz- 
ards ; and the answer came, " We will hold the town till we starve." 

To have retreated would have been a great disaster ; the cannon and 
the wagon-trains could not have been taken over the mountains for want 
of horses. These the words of General Grant : " It M'ould not only have 
been the loss of the most important strategic position to us, but it would 
have been attended with the loss of all the artillery still left with the 
Army of the Cumberland, and the loss of that army itself, either by capt- 
ure or annihilation. "(') 

The supplies for the army were all brought from Xashville by I'ailroad 
to Bridgeport. The distance between Bridgeport and Chattanooga was 
twenty-six miles, but when General Rosecrans gave up Lookout Mount- 
ain he lost control of the railroad which winds along its base. The wagon- 
road on the north bank was commanded by Bragg's artillery and his sharp- 
shooters, Mdio, with their long-range Whitworth rifles, made in England, 
secreting themselves amid the rocks, suddenly opened fire upon a wagon- 
train, killing the mules, and putting a stop to the further use of the road. 
The shutting up of the route compelled the wagon -trains to pass over 
Walden's Ridge. It took a week for a wagon to go to Bridgeport and 
return to Chattanooga. The fall rains were setting in, and the roads were 
deep with mud, the wheels sinking to the axles. One day a teamster saw 



HOLDING CHATTANOOGA. 



423 




CONFEDERATE RIFLEMEN FIRING UPON A UNION WAGON-TRAIN. 

From a sketch by au English artist, taken at the time. 



liis wagon go down till its bed rested on the mud ; instead of whipping 
his mules and swearing, he sat down on a rock and cried. Q When the 
teams were doubled, and eight mules were harnessed to one wagon, they 
could draw onlj half a load. The quartermasters at Nashville and Mur- 
freesboro could not, for want of railroad facilities, supply animals to take 
the places of those that died from overwork and scanty feed. Ten thou- 
sand animals died, and their carcasses lined the way and tainted the air 
over Walden's Ridge and down the Sequatchie Yalley. The soldiers were 
living on half rations, and guards had to be stationed at the troughs to 
prevent the hungry soldiers from robbing the horses and mules of their 
scanty allowance of corn. They picked up scattered kernels and bits of 
bread to satisfy their hunger.(') Cattle driven from Nashville were so thin 



42i MAECHING TO VICTORY. 

and poor, for want of grazing, tliat the soldiers said they were eating beef 
dried on the hoof.Q There were so few horses and mules left that food 
only could be taken from Bridgeport. The soldiers were greatly in need 
of blankets, clothes, and shoes ; many were barefoot. All the forests 
around Chattanooga had been cut down to build breastworks and fortifi- 
cations ; and to obtain fuel, the soldiers went up the north bank of the 
river, felled trees, rafted tlieni down to Chattanooga, and carried the logs 
on their shoulders to their camp. The army had hardly ammunition 
enough to fight a battle, for the Confederate cavalry had crossed tlie Ten- 
nessee and destroyed an ammunition-train. Such the situation of affairs 
in the Union army. 

There w^as disaffection in Bragg's army, and Jefferson Davis hastened 
west to bring about harmony. A correspondent wrote of his arrival : 

"The President has come, and all men believe, to turn things inside out 
■ — to renovate the army, to settle household quarrels, and set the troops mov^- 
ing on their w^ay. . . . The suspension of Polk, the arrest of Ilindman, the 
flare-up with Forrest, and the disaffection of several others, all recurring 
on the heels of victory, are enough to excite anxiety."(') 

The Confederate President went to the top of Lookout Mountain 
and beheld the vast panorama — the winding Tennessee, tlie mountain 
ranges, the forests clothed in autunmal beauty, the encampments of the 
two armies. 

At Bragg's lieadquarters on Missionary Ridge he examined the maps 
of the country. He had served in the Mexican War, commanded a regi- 
ment at the battle of Buena Yista. He was commander-in-chief of all 
the Confederate forces. IN^ot content to leave the jjlanning of military 
movements to General Bragg, he devised a movement of Longstreet's 
corps to Eastern Tennessee, to drive out Burnside, regain that section of 
country to the Confederacy, and reopen the railroad to Yirginia.Q A 
Confederate writer says : " He was in furious love with the extraordinary 
expedition, and in a public address to the army he could not resist the 
temptation of announcing that the green fields of Tennessee would short- 
ly again be theirs."(^) 

The Confederate army was sadl}" in need of supplies; the soldiers were 
on half rations. A Confederate soldier gives this account of their suj)ply 
of food : " Our rations were cooked up by a special detail ten miles in the 
rear, and were sent to us every three days ; and then those three days' ra- 
tions were generally eaten at one meal, and the soldiers had to starve the 
other two days and a half. The soldiers were starved and almost naked, 
and covered all over with vermin and camp-itch and filth and dirt. The 



HOLDING CHATTANOOGA, 425 

men looked sick, hollow-eyed, and heart-broken— living principally upon 
parched corn which had been picked out of the mud and dirt nnder the 
feet of the officers' horses. We thought of nothing but starvation. ... In 
the very acme of our privations and hunger, when the army was most dis- 
satisfied and unhappy, we were ordered into line of battle, to be reviewed 
by Honorable Jefferson Davis. When he passed ns with his great retinue 
of staff-officers and play-outs at full gallop, cheers greeted him with the 
words, ' Send us something to eat, Massa Jeff". I'm hungry ! I'm hun- 
gry !'"(■«) 

He said to the soldiers, in an address published October 14th, " Behind 
you is a people providing for your support, and depending uj)on your pro- 
tection. Before you is a country devastated by ruthless invaders, where 
gentle woman, feeble age, and helpless infancy have been subject to out- 
rages without a parallel in the warfare of civilized nations. With eager 
eye they watch for your coming, for their deliverance ; and homeless refu- 
gees pine for the hour when your victorious arms shall restore their fam- 
ily shelters, from which they have been driven and forced to take up arms 
to vindicate their political rights, freedom, equality, and State sovereignty, 
which were a heritage purchased by the blood of your Revolutionary sires. 
You have but the alternative of being slaves of submission to a despotic 
usurpation, or of independence, which a vigorous, united, and persistent 
effort will secure." 

The address of President Davis reads curiously when contrasted with 
what had been done in Eastern Tennessee by the Confederates, in the hang- 
ing of Union men, hunting them with hounds, and sending thousands to 
]irisons in Georgia and Alabama. 

While General Grant was making his way to Chattanooga, Gen. Will- 
iam F. Smith, chief engineer, was setting those soldiers who before the 
war had been carpenters and blacksmiths, to work building a saw -mill. 
When it was completed they sawed planks and began the construction of 
larffe flat-bottomed boats. We shall soon see how the boats were used. 
He found a steam-engine in a mill, which he put into a large fen-y-boat, 
built -ct paddle-wheel, and soon had a stern -wheel steamboat, which was 
named the Chattanooga. 

On the eveninj; of October 23d General Grant reached General 
Thomas's headquarters. He had met Rosecrans at Stevenson, on his way 
North, who explained the situation of affairs. General Grant had been 
injured by the stumbling of his horse and was obliged to use crutches, 
but was able to ride horseback, and the next morning he rode along the 
lines. He saw that the first thing to be done was the opening of a shorter 
'27— 



420 



MAECHING TO VICTORY. 



road to Bridgeport to obtain supplies. The railroad from Chattanooga 
to Stevenson, after winding along the northern base of Lookout Mountain, 
passes up Lookout Yalley to AYauhatchie Station, then turns west throuo-h 
a gap in Eaccoon Mountain, and comes once more to the bank of the 
Tennessee at Shell Mound, twenty-two miles from Chattanooga, but more 
than forty miles to the same point by the river, which has many turns 
and windings amid the mountains. From Shell Mound the railroad goes 
on to Bridgeport, where it crosses the Tennessee. 

General Longstreet had extended the Confederate line w^estward into 
Lookout Yalley, and to the Tennessee at the base of Raccoon Mountain, 
whence his riflemen fired upon the Union wagon - trains. There were 




POSITION OF UNION AND CONFEDERATE TROOPS, NOVEMBER 23, 1863. 



not many Confederate troops in Lookout Yalley, and they were so far 
away from the main body of Bragg's army, east of Lookout, that General 
Grant determined to carry out what Rosecrans had already planned — gain 
possession of Lookout Yalley, which would enable him to send down the 
steamboat Chattanooga to bring supplies from Bridgeport up to lielley's 
Ferry, only eight miles from the army by the road through Lookout 
Yalley. If the Confederates could be driven from the valley, the array 
would soon have abundant supplies. General Smith had initiated the 
plan which General Bosecrans had accepted. General Thomas, before 
Grant's arrival, had continued the preparations, and the plan was so wise 
and judicious that on the evening after his arrival he issued the order for 
carrying it out. 



HOLDING CHATTANOOGA. 



427 




VIEW FROM THE SUMMIT OF LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. 
From a sketch made Novembei- 2G, 1SG3. 



General Hooker, with tlie Eleventh and Twelfth corps, was on tlie 
north bank of tlie river at Bridgeport, and the plan was for him to cross 
and march rapidly along the railroad to Wauhatchie, in Lookout Valley. 
In connection with this movement, the boats which the carpenters had 
been secretly building up the river, on the banks of North Chickamauga 
Creek, were to come into use. They were to be launched in the creek at 
night. General Hazen's brigade \vas to step on board, and then in the 
darkness the boats were to glide noiselessly down - stream, hugging the 
northern shore, past the Confederate sentinels at the base of Lookout Mount- 
ain. When near Brown's Ferry they were to push swiftly across the river, 
leap up the bank, capture the pickets, and hold the ground. 

AVhile the boats were gliding down-stream General Palmer's division of 
the Fourteenth Corps was to be on the march towards Brown's Ferry, 
ready to cross as soon as the boats had landed Hazen's troops. 



428 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

As General Smith Lad planned the movement, General Grant intrusted 
its execution to him. He had tlionght out all the details. Standing on 
the northern bank, opposite Brown's Ferry, he pointed out to General 
Hazen and the officers who were to be in the boats a gap in the hills. 
Jnst before reaching it they were to steer across the river, and the current, 
with a little use of the oars, would swing them to the right position. A 
fire was to be lighted on the northern shore at the spot where the oars 
were to dip the water. There were fifty-two boats, each intrusted to the 
command of a well-known and trustworthy leader, sufficient to transport 
thirteen hundred and fifty picked men. If a man knew how to manage 
a boat, even though only a sergeant, he was placed in command. (") As 
soon as the men were on shore, the oarsmen were to pull across the river 
and take over the other troops in waiting. As soon as the landing-party 
reached the crest of the hills, axes were to be used in cutting down trees 
for an abatis. A strong party of skirmishers was to cover those at work 
with the axes. 

It was a little past midnight when the boats pushed out from the creek 
and moved down to Chattanooga. At three o'clock all were ready. Gen- 
eral Hazen wished to reach the landing just before daybreak. One thou- 
sand three hundred and fifty men stepped into the boats. A fog hung over 
the river. No word was spoken. They floated past the Confederate pick- 
ets, rounding the bend opposite Lookout. Just al)ove Brown's Ferry they 
saw a fire burning on the northern bank. Instantly the oars dipped the 
water, and they shot across the river. A few strokes, and they were at 
the southern shore. The few Confederate pickets fired, but no one was 
harmed. The skirmishers pushed forward, followed by the men with axes. 
A position was selected, and the axe-men were quickly at work. Back to 
the northern shore went the boats, returning with reinforcements. The 
engineers quickly constructed a pontoon-bridge, opening communication 
with the northern shore. 

While this was going on, Hooker, who had crossed at Bridgeport, was 
on the march, reaching Lookout Yalley on the 28th, the Eleventh Corps 
in advance. Suddenly a volley was fired upon them, whereupon two bri- 
gades deployed, which drove the Confederates, who retreated across Look- 
out Creek, burning the railroad bridge behind them. The Union troops 
captured two thousand bushels of corn and twenty cattle. The corn was 
unshelled. The soldiers were so hungry that they punched holes in their 
canteens with nails, transforming them into graters, grated the corn into 
coarse meal, which they made into dough, and baked it by their bivouac 
fires. 



HOLDING CHATTANOOGA. 431 

The Confederate commander was surprised when lie heard that a 
strong division of the Union army was on the southern bank, and that a 
bridge of boats was being laid. The cannon on the summit of Lookout 
hurled shells down upon the bridge-builders and into the woods occupied 
by the Union troops, but they did little harm. When the Confederates 
saw from the top of the mountain the dark column of troops under 
Hooker winding along the road from the west, General Bragg knew that the 
movement was to gain possession of the railroad, and that if it was ac- 
complished the Union troops would soon have abundant supplies, and he 
therefore directed Longstreet to attack the advancing column. The Con- 
federate troops were on the mountain. Longstreet saw that Geary's divis- 
ion of the Twelfth Corps went into bivouac at Wauhatchie, three miles 
from Howard, who, with the Eleventh Corps, had joined Hazen, Hooker 
had placed Geary at Wauhatchie to hold a road, and to cut off some Con- 
federates who were posted along the river. Longstreet deteriTiined to send 
a large detachment to crush Geary, and another force to take a position 
which would prevent Hooker from sending any of the Eleventh Corps to 
his aid. 

Stevenson's Confederate division came down the mountain-side. It 
was a moonlight night, and the troops picked their way cautiously through 
the woods. Their guides knew every path. The Union troops were sleep- 
ing after their long march — all but the pickets, who could hear a tramping 
of feet, and who caught sight of the Confederates as they formed in line of 
battle to attack on three sides at the same moment. 

It was past midnight when the pickets tired. The alarm ran along 
the lines, and in an instant the men were on their feet. Geary had se- 
lected a line for defence, and was prepared for the onslaught. The Con- 
federates fired a volley, and received one in return. The Confederate 
artillery on the mountain sent its shells down into the woods, and the re- 
verberations rolled along the valley, echoing from the mountain, arousing 
from sleep Howard's and Hazen's troops. 

" Geary is attacked. Hurry to his aid !" was the order from Hooker 
to Howard, who sent Schurz's division. There came a rattling fire from 
the hills in front of Schurz, whose troops fixed their bayonets, charged up 
the hill, breaking the Confederate lines and driving all before them. 

LLoward and two companies of cavalry came out into a field, and saw 
by the moonlight a body of troops. 

" Who goes there ?" shouted Howard. ('°) 

" We are Stevenson's men.'' 

" Have you whipped the Yankees ?" 



432 



MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



" We have tried. "We got upon their flank, but were driven, and have 
lost our way." 

" You are our prisoners." With the word the cavalry closed around 
thein. 

For more than two hours the battle had raged, Geary resisting every 
attempt to break his lines. When the Eleventh Corps came up, Ste- 
venson, repulsed at every point, gave up the struggle. He had lost several 
hundred in killed and wounded, and had gained nothing. 




STEAMER "CHATTANOOGA," BXJILT BY THE SOLDIERS. 
From a s^keicli mnde at the time. 



Behind Hooker was a long line of wagons loaded with food ; and when 
morning dawned the steamer Chattanooga^ which the carpenters and black- 
smiths had built, loaded with supplies, came puffing round the bend of the 
river to the landing at Brown's Ferry, and then there went up from the 
fifty thousand soldiers of the Union army a hurrah heard by the Confed- 
erates from the summit of Lookout Mountain to Bragg's headquarters on 
Missionary Ridge. No more half rations. No longer looking starvation 
in the face. In the wagons were boots, shoes, blankets, clothing, and medi- 
cines for the sick. The army took a long breath. 



HOLDING CHATTANOOGA. 433 

While these events were taking place General Sherman was making 
his way eastward from Memphis. His troops were repairing the railroad 
as they advanced. They reached Tuscnmbia, in Alabama, when a man 
came to him with a note from General Grant : " Drop all work on the 
Memphis and Charleston Railroad, and hurry eastward with all possible 
despatch towards Bridgeport, till you meet further orders from me." 

The man who brought it had floated down the river in a canoe, over 
Muscle Shoals, and had been fired at by the Confederate scouts. 

By the aid of the gunboats and steamers the troops were ferried across 
the river. The country was infested with guerillas, who seized two of 
General Sherman's clerks, stripped off their coats, tied them to the tail of 
a wagon, and drove rapidly away. General Sherman had no cavalry to 
send in pursuit. He knew that the guerillas were sons or neighbors of 
the citizens of the town. He therefore seized three of the prominent 
men of Florence, and told them how his clerks had been captured. 

" These guerillas are your own sons or your neighbors ; you know their 
haunts," he said, "and unless the two men are returned within twenty- 
four hours, I'll have you tied up and treated as they have been."(") 

The frightened citizens saw that General Sherman was not a man to be 
trifled with, and messengers rode in hot haste in search of the guerillas, 
bringing back the two men whom they had seized. 

On the night of November 14th General Sherman reached Chattanoo- 
ga in advance of his troops, who were making long marches in their eager- 
ness to help the Army of the Cumberland. 



NOTES TO CHAPTER XXI. 

( ') Bragg's Report. 

( ■) Grant, " Personal Memoirs," p. 18. 

( 3) Idem, p. 24. 

( ^) J. S. FuUerton, Century Magazine, April, 1887, p. 137. 

( 5) Idem. 

( ^) Grant, "Personal Memoirs," p. 25. 

( ') Hazen," A Narrative of Military Service," p. 155. 

( ^) General Howard, National Tribune. 

( 3) Pollard, "The Lost Cause," p. 436. 

('") Watkins, " History of the First Tennessee Regiment," p. 100. 

(") "Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman," vol. i., p. 338. 

('■^) General Howard, National Tribune. 

(") " Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman," vol. i., p. 388. 



28 



434 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



CHAPTEK XXII. 

LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN AND MISSIONARY RIDGE. 

AT General Bragg's headquarters on Missionaiy Ridge, on the evening 
of November 3d, Jefferson Davis's plan for Longstreet's movement 
to drive Burnside out of Eastern Tennessee was unfolded by General Bragg 
to his officers. Burnside had about twenty thousand men. Longstreet 
would have about fifteen thousand infantry and artillery, and five thousand 
cavalry. General Jones, who was at Abingdon, in Virginia, was to move 
west, and between them Burnside would be ground as fine as meal be- 
tween two millstones. It was a fascinating plan. It was more than one 
hmidred miles from Chattanooga to Knoxville, but Longstreet could move 
his troops rapidly a portion of the way by rail. Jones could advance from 
Abingdon by rail, and they would make quick work of it. Bragg would 
keep the Army of the Cumberland besieged in Chattanooga the while, 
and when Burnside was crushed would reunite his forces and close 
around Grant. 

"The success of the plan depends on rapid movements and sudden 
blows," were the words of Bragg to Longstreet. " The country will sub- 
sist yonr command. You are to drive Burnside out of East Tennessee ; 
or, better, capture and destroy him."(') 

General Bragg left out an important factor in his calculations — the loco- 
motives and cars. He had not looked ahead to ascertain how many locomo- 
tives and cars he would need, or where he could obtain them. The single 
line of railroad leading to Atlanta was taxed to its utmost in bringing sup- 
plies. The engines and cars were wearing out, and so was the road. The 
Confederacy could conscript men into military service, but it could not find 
men to build locomotives. As the war went on, it became more and more 
manifest that it was a struggle between tAvo systems of labor, between 
ignorance and knowledge, between weakness and power. The soldiers 
of the Confederacy might be just as virtuous personally, as brave, as able 
to stand hardship, as soldiers of the Union ; but the people beneath the 
Stars and Stripes could file iron to a hair's-breadth ; could build machines 



LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN AND MISSIONARY RIDGE. 437 

to do the work of liuman hands, which the men beneath the flag of the 
Confederacy could not do. Slavery degraded labor ; freedom ennobled it. 
The men who brought about the conspiracy against the Union to over- 
throw the Government despised mechanics. The laboring men of the 
JSTorth had been called "greasy mechanics" and "mud-sills" on the floor of 
Congress. But the men who shovelled coal into flaming forges, who tend- 
ed tilt-hammers, who filed iron, were turning out locomotives by the hun- 
dred and cars by the thousand. They had made it possible for General 
Hooker and the Eleventh and Twelfth corps to be transported from the 
Rapidan to the Tennessee, with all their baggage, artillery, and horses, in 
seven days — beginning the journey of one thousand miles in twenty-four 
hours after the issuing of the order. 

On the morning of November 4th Longstreet withdrew his corps from 
Lookout Mountain, and marched to the railroad behind Missionary Ridge, 
where he waited till the 11th before a locomotive and a train of cars 
could be procured to transport his supplies. 

General Grant learned from his scouts on the fifth that Longstreet was 
moving towards East Tennessee. 

" I will endeavor to bring him back," was his message to Burnside. 

He proposed to attack Bragg, which he believed would compel him to 
order Longstreet to return. 

" Attack the northern end of Missionary Bidge with all the force you 
can bring to bear," was his order to Thomas. " If you have not artillery 
horses, mules must be taken from the teams and horses from the ambu- 
lances ; or, if necessary, officers must be dismounted and their horses 
taken." 

" I am absolutely unable to move," said Thomas.(^) 

How hard it is to be helpless ! General Grant could not advance 
against Bragg for want of horses, nor could he render assistance to Burn- 
side, who must be left to confront the forces gathering to overwhelm 
him. He must wait for more horses and for Sherman's arrival before he 
could take the aggressive. 

It was the energy of Napoleon — his quick movements, his forethought 
about provisions and supplies, his far-seeing, and his ability to infuse his 
own indomitable energy into his men — which gave him so many victories. 
The Northern States were feeling General Grant's energy. Carpenters 
in Ohio were building bridges. Locomotive - builders in Philadelphia 
were hurrying to complete locomotives. Steamboat captains from JSTew 
Orleans to St. Louis and Pittsburg were under his orders. Two hundred 
thousand soldiers were obeying his commands — not all at Chattanooga, but 



438 MAECHING TO VICTORY. 

all over the West — guarding railroads, chasing guerillas, forwarding sup- 
plies, getting ready to strike a blow. 

Day and night the cars were running on the railroad. Steamboats 
towing barges were ascending the Cumberland. Everybody felt that tire- 
less energy. When Sherman reached the Tennessee and wanted boats to 
cross, he found them waiting, provided by General Grant in advance. 

November lith Sherman was at Bridgeport. On the night of the 
15th he "was talking with Grant at Chattanooga. Tlie next morning 
Grant and Sherman and Thomas were in the saddle looking at the north- 
ern end of Missionary Ridge. On the 18th Sherman's soldiers were 
marching past the troops of Hooker and Tliomas, and taking position 
behind the hills on the north bank of the Tennessee, opj^osite the north- 
ern end of Missionary Hidge. We iind no parallel to this in military 
campaigns — two corps brought from the Army of the Potomac, one thou- 
sand miles ; the Fifteenth Corps from Vicksburg, a march of four hun- 
dred miles ; a lifting of the army out of despondency to exultation, and 
confident expectation of victory. Bragg had made a mistake by dividing 
his army and sending oif Longstreet at the moment when he most needed 
him. He had not been far-seeing enough to forecast Grant's j^lan of con- 
centration. 

Bragg learned that Sherman had arrived, and sent a letter under a flag 
of truce to Grant November 20th ; 

" As there may still be some non-combatants in Chattanooga, I deem 
it proper to notify you that prudence would dictate their early with- 
drawal," read the letter.Q 

That was childish. General Grant knew that Bragg would not dare 
to attack him, but himself determined to strike a blow the next morning, 
but the rain poured during the night, and the river rose rapidly. Bragg 
set his soldiers to work building rafts, which came down upon the bridges 
of boats at Chattanooga and Brown's Ferry, and broke them asunder. The 
Union commander must wait another day. 

South Chickamauga Creek bends round the northern end of Mission- 
ary Ridge, turns west, and runs for nearly a mile almost parallel with the 
Tennessee. Bragg had only a thin picket line along the creek. His can- 
non crowned the entire crest of Missionary Ridge. Half-way down the 
ridge, which is five hundred feet high, he had a strong line of earthworks. 
In front of the ridge was a round hill — Orchard Knob ; at the base of 
which were other lines of works, and in front a line of formidable rifie- 
pits. 

The Union earthworks were equally strong. On the highest and 



LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN AND MISSIONARY RIDGE. 441 

most advanced hillock of the line stood Fort Wood, with twenty heavy 
cannon. 

General Grant rode alone along the lines, inspecting every point.f/) 
The pickets of both armies drew water from Chattanooga Creek. There 
was a mutual understanding that they would not fire upon one another 
except in battle. When he came to the camp of the picket guard he 
heard the sentinel shout, " Turn out the guard for the commanding gen- 
eral." " Never mind the guard," he said. Upon the opposite side of the 
creek was the Confederate guard, and General Grant heard the sentinel 
say, " Turn out the guard for the commanding general. Grant ;" and the 
next moment the guard stood in line facing him and gave the salute, 
which he returned and rode away. They might have fired a volley, but 
they would have scorned such an act. In battle they would doubtless 
have done so, but they had too high a sense of honor to fire upon him 
then and there. He rode on, and came to a log which had been felled 
across the stream A soldier in blue stood upon the farther end. " I 
commenced conversing with him," said General Grant, " and asked whose 
corps he belonged to. He was very polite, and touching his hat to me, 
said he belonged to General Longstreet's corps. I asked him a few ques- 
tions, but not with a view of gaining any particular information, all of 
which he answered, and 1 rode off." 

We are not to think that the soldiers of the two armies bore any 
hatred to each other individually, but that they were under different flags, 
representative of antagonistic ideas and principles. The fighting was to 
be in the shock of battle, not on the picket line. 

The pontoon-bridges were made whole once more. Behind the hills 
opposite the mouth of Cliickamauga Creek General Smith, Chief of En- 
gineers, was waiting with boats for another bridge. A line of cannon, 
under General Brannan, had been planted on the hill, pointing across the 
river. Sherman's troops, with the exception of Osterhaus's division, were 
also behind the hills. Osterhaus had been ordered to report to Hooker, 
Avho was in Lookout Yalley, where he had been since the battle of Wau- 
hatchie. 

We come to the night of the 23d. The boats are launched in jSTorth 
Chickamauga Creek, and the troops under Gen. Giles A. Smith step in. 
A few strokes of the oars and they are across the river, capturing Bragg's 
pickets. Before daylight Sherman, with eight thousand men, is opposite 
the northern end of Missionary Ridge, with strong intrenchments thrown 
up, and the engineers are building a bridge, completed before night, one 
thousand three hundred and fifty feet in length. 
28— 



443 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

" Bragg is sending many troops against Burnside," was the information 
from Grant's spies. General Grant could not believe it, but it was true, 
nevertheless. Longstreet had called for more men, and he had sent Gen- 
eral Buckner's two divisions, but soon recalled one of them. 

To deceive Bragg as to what he intends to do, Grant moves the Elev- 
enth Corps, under Howard, into the town. Bragg sees them taking posi- 
tion immediately in front of him, towards the northern end of Missionary 
Kidge, as if to make an attack at that point. 

Let us see the position of the Union trooj)S. Sherman is opposite the 
northern end of Missionary E-idge ; next in line is the Fourth Corps, under 
Gen. Gordon Granger, with Sheridan's division on the right and Wood's 
on the left ; the Fourteenth Corps comes next, under General Palmer, 
with Baird's division in position to support Granger's right wing. John- 
son's division is in reserve. The Eleventh Corps, under Howard, is on 
Granger's left, to be ready to move wherever it may be needed. 

Going now down the river and out on the road from the pontoons at 
Brown's Ferry, we come to Hooker, who has the Twelfth Corps, under 
Geary, Osterhaus's division of Slierman's corps, and Cruft's division of 
the Fourth Corps. , 

Lookout Mountain separates Llooker from the main body of the army, 
but he is to sweep up the slope of the mountain, strike the left wing of 
the Confederates, get in their rear, and drive them, if possible, from the 
summit. 

General Stevenson, with six Confederate brigades, with strong breast- 
works and redoubts for artillery, holds the mountain-side. Hooker must 
climb the steep ascent in the face of a deadly fire. 

General Sherman moved out from his position of the morning, drove 
in the Confederate skirmishers, advanced over some low hills, scaled a hill 
beyond, which he had supposed was the main ridge, but discovered in- 
stead a deep ravine, with Missionary Bidge, bristling with Bi'agg's cannon, 
looming above it. His artillery wheeled into position, and the uproar 
began ; but he was not ready to attack. The sun w^ent down, and the 
troo23S wrapped themselves in their blankets, knowing that in the morning 
the great struggle would begin. 

"Attack at daylight," was the order from Grant at midnight sent to 
the commanders. 

" I am ready," was the response from Hooker at four o'clock in the 
morning. 

Had we been there we should have found General Stevenson, with a 
strong picket line, along the east bank of Lookout Creek. The Confed- 



LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN AND MISSIONARY EIDGE. 445 

erate soldiers were crouching beneath the oak-trees, wide-awake and ready 
for l)attle. The ground was favorable for them. . There were gullies and 
deep ravines, bowlders and ledges, and they had also breastworks and rifle- 
pits. 

The Twelfth Corps, under Geary, was to move up the creek and find 
a place where tlie soldiers could ford it. Cruft's brigade was to cross near 
the railroad. The clouds hung low, and there was a heavy mist. The 
morning had not dawned when the troops began to move. We see them 
picking their way over the uneven ground, Cruft advancing to the creek. 
Muskets flash upon the opposite bank. A volley rings out upon the morn- 
ing air, rolling up the mountain. Stevenson's men are on their feet, but 
before any reinforcements can reach the soldiers guarding the bridge the 
Union troops are in possession of it. The mist is so thick that the Con- 
federates do not see Geary, who is making his way up the creek. Steven- 
son concentrates his troops to resist Cruft's, Wood's, and Grose's brigades, 
who have captured nearly all the forty men guarding the bridge. 

Geary finds a crossing-place, moves over, and the men begin to ascend 
the mountain, marching north-east, while Cruft, Grose, and Osterhaus are 
moving east. 

The men with axes are hard at work slashing down the oaks and re- 
building tlie bridge. It is jDast ten o'clock, however, before they com- 
plete it so that Osterhaus can cross. The battle is growing warm, with 
flashes from the Confederate breastworks, and wreatlis of blue smoke 
curling above Geary's advancing lines. The Confederates in front of 
Cruft and Grose give way and flee up the mountain to the higher breast- 
works, while the Union troops send out a lusty cheer. 

Hooker's cannon come into position, and the thunder rolls along the 
valle}^, echoing from mountain to mountain. 

The day was dark. At noon the clouds were thick and heavy, envel- 
oping tlie mountain. The Union troops in Chattanooga could hear the 
rattling of musketry high above them, and, mingled with the fusillade, the 
cheers of Hooker's troops as the Confederates gave way, fleeing up the 
mountain, throwing aside arms, cartridge-boxes, and blankets. 

Bragg had sent reinforcements, but they were too late to retrieve the 
ground lost by the giving way of Stevenson's troops, which were rallied 
behind the breastworks on the farm of Mr. Craven, whose whitewashed 
cottage, high up on the mountain-side, on bright days stood out clear and 
distinct amid the green fields and patches of woodland. 

The blood of Hooker's men was up, for they had driven the Confeder- 
ates from a chosen position. It was exhilarating to climb the mountain- 



446 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

side in pursuit, to enter the eloiids, pressing the fugitives in front and 
on the flank, closing around and capturing eight hundred of them. At 
four o'clock Hooker was in possession of the whole western slope of the 
mountain. Carlin's brigade came up, and the line was extended around 
the northern end, connecting with Thomas's troo23s in Chattanooga. 

Night set in dark and rainy. The Union troops, weary with fighting 
and climbing, well satisfied with what they had accomplished, kindled 
great fires, cooked their coffee, wrapped themselves in their blankets, and 
made themselves as comfortable as they could through the night. 

Bragg saw that he could not hold Lookout Mountain, and so during 
the night the Confederates destroyed their provisions, descended the 
eastern slope, crossed Chattanooga Creek, and joined the main body of 
Bragg's army on Missionary Ridge. 

General Gi'ant issued his orders for the next day's operations. At 
daylight General Sherman was to attack the right flank of the Confed- 
erates at the northern end of Missionary Ridge. Hooker at the same 
moment was to descend the eastern side of Lookout Mountain, cross Chat- 
tanooga Creek, push on towards Rossville, and strike the left flank of 
Bragg. Howard was to join Sherman, while the Army of the Cumberland, 
under Thomas, was to be ready to move at the right moment, wherever 
the troops might be needed. 

The drizzling rain ceases, the clouds roll away. The morning sun 
throws its beams upon Lookout Mountain, and the soldiers of the Army 
of the Cumberland, gazing upon it, behold the Stars and Stripes wav- 
ing upon the topmost cliff — the spot where, a few days before, Jefferson 
Davis had looked down upon the beleaguered Army of the Cumberland, 
and prophesied its discomfiture and retreat to Kentucky. Loyal soldiers 
from Kentucky were waving the fiag. Captain Wilson, Sergeants Wagner, 
Davis, and Woods, and Privates Hill and Bradley, of the Eighth Ken- 
tucky Regiment, had climbed over the rocks to find the Confederates 
gone. The soldiers in the valley beheld them, swung their hats, and the 
cheers of fifty thousand men rent the air. 

The Confederate troops at sunrise on the morning of November 25th 
were all on Missionary Ridge — Hardee's corps holding the northern 
end, with Cleburne's division in front of Sherman. Walker's division, 
commanded by Gist, was near the railroad tunnel ; Stevenson's and 
Cheatham's divisions, which had been on Lookout Mountain, and on the 
march through the night, were at sunrise coming into position to the left 
of Cleburne. General Bate's division was in the centre, in front of 
Bragg's headquarters. Baton Anderson's division held the ground between 



LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN AND MISSIONARY RIDGE. 



U7 



Bate and Cheatham ; Stewart's division extended from Bate to Rossville. 
In all, Bragg had forty-one thousand men, and one hundred and twelve 
cannon, holding a line between seven and eight miles in length. By the 
loss of Lookout Mountain, by sending Longstreet to East Tennessee, he 
suddenly found himself in a position where he must either retreat or ac- 
cept battle. It is said that some of the Confederate generals had advised 




KEBBI, BATTERY ON THE TOP OP LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. 



him to give up Missionary Bidge and fall back to the stronghold of Buz- 
zard's Boost and Tunnel Hill ; for Hooker, descending Lookout, crossing 
Chattanooga Creek, and moving on Bossville, would turn his left flank 
and cut him off from the railroad. General Bragg did not like to be 
advised as to what he should do, and determined to accept battle, con- 
fident that he could hold Missionary Bidge and defeat Grant. During 
the night the troops of Hardee were building new breastworks of trees 
and stones and earth, extending down the north-eastern slope of the ridge 
to Chickaraauga Creek. 



448 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

Sherman was not ready at daybreak, Witli ranch difficulty he brought 
twelve cannon into position, and it took time to reconnoitre the ground 
and bring his troops into line ; but at nine o'clock Corse's brigade ad- 
vanced over a knoll thickly set with scrubby oaks and bushes. Corse 
was wounded early in the action, but his men held firmly to the ground 
they had taken. Gen. Morgan L. Smith's division moved south along the 
base of the ridge, while Corse's troops advanced directly against it. 
Loomis's brigade moved south-east of the north-western slope, with two 
brigades of John E. Smith's division in reserve. 

Morgan L. Smith advanced through thick woods, driving the Confed- 
erate skirmishers, swinging the left of his division till it reached the rail- 
road. 

General Bragg, fearing that Smith's movement would cut him off from 
his supplies at Chickamauga Station, concentrated his troojDS in front of 
Sherman ; for from his position on the ridge he could see in the clear 
bright sunshine every movement of the Union troops. 

It was two o'clock in the afternoon when General Sherman ordered 
Matthias's and Raum's brigades of John E. Smith's division to advance 
against Cleburne's division, which, up to this hour, had held Sherman in 
check. They were met by Gist's Confederate division, which fell upon 
their left flank and repulsed them, capturing a number of the Union troops. 

Neither General Grant nor General Sherman had comprehended, the 
strength of the Confederate position at the northern end of the ridge; 
that Bragg with a small number of troops could easily hold the Union 
troops at bay, for the nature of the ground would not permit Sherman to 
employ more than half of the twelve brigades in his command. The day 
was waning — the sun rapidly sinking towards the western mountain ranges, 
and nothing had been accomplished. The order for Hooker to move on 
Rossville was not received by that commander till past ten o'clock, and 
wlien he reached Chattanooga Creek he found that the Confederates had 
destroyed the bridge, and that the creek, swollen by rains, could not be 
forded. Osterhaus's division was in advance, but was obliged to w'ait till 
trees could be felled and a rude bridge constructed. It was nearly three 
o'clock before any of the troops crossed the stream ; but once on the 
other side, Osterhaus pushed on to Eossville, to seize the gap and gain 
the left flank of Bragg, who weakened his centre by sending Stewart's 
division to meet the movement. 

It was four o'clock — the sun almost down. Grant, at Fort Wood, on a 
hill east of Chattanooga, and directly in front of Bragg's headquarters, 
had been impatiently waiting to hear the thunder of Hooker's cannon. 



LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN AND MISSIONARY RIDGE. 449 

Tlirough the day the Army of the Cumberland had been idle. Grant 
had seen the sunlight gleaming from the bayonets of the Confederate 
troops as they moved north to confront Sherman, and south to meet 
Hooker. It would not do to have the day end with nothing accomplished, 
to have night come, under cover of which Bragg could quietly withdraw 
from Missionary Ridge. He did not want Bragg to slip away ; he wanted 
to deal him a staggering blow where he was. 

Had w^e been with General Grant in Fort Wood on that day we should 
liave seen, east of it, the divisions of Baird, Sheridan, Wood, and John- 
son, all facing towards Missionary Ridge — twenty-fiv^e thousand men — a 
line two miles long. Between them and the base of the ridge is a strip of 
woods, where white jets spurt from the rifles of the Confederate skirmish- 
ers. Beyond the woods is a plain reaching to the base of the ridge, where 
the Confederates are lying behind their first line of breastworks. The 
ridge rises sharp and steep. The forest-trees which a few months before 
covered its side have been felled for fuel and for the construction of breast- 
works. The stumps remain, and there are many bowlders and brush-heaps, 
together with zigzag paths from the base to the summit, where Bragg has 
his strong line of works, with sixty cannon, which during the day at times 
have been hurling shells towards Chattanooga. 

From Fort Wood, Grant's heaviest guns have been firing over the 
heads of the men of the Army of the Cumberland, sending shells to the 
top of the ridge, three miles in an air-line from the muzzles of the guns to 
Bragg's headquarters. 

General Grant determined to order the advance of the trooi3S towards 
the Confederate breastworks at the base of the ridge, as a demonstration 
to relieve Sherman, and to aid Hooker. 

It was a little past three o'clock when the order was issued. It was 
nearly four o'clock, and no movement. General Grant, upon turning 
round, saw General Wood almost by his side. 

" Why have you not advanced ?" he asked. 

" I have received no orders to advance." 

" I issued an order an hour ago."Q 

" This is the first I have heard of it." 

" Charge at once." 

What a magnificent spectacle it was a few moments later ! First 
a strong line of skirmishers. Behind them, keeping step to the drum- 
beat, were the battalions in double columns, advancing with steady step, 
as if upon parade. Bragg beholds the movement. What is the mean- 
ing of it? 
29 



450 MARCHING TO VICTOEY. 

Five minutes settles the uncertainty, for the Union skirmishers are 
driving the Confederates from the belt of timber. Then the crest of 
Missionary Ridge becomes a line of light as sixty cannon send their mis- 
siles upon the Union troops, one shell killing or disabling thirteen men in 
the Fifth Kentucky Regiraent.(°) 

The soldiers fighting for the Union were, for the most part, men who 
could read and write — wlio had been educated in the public schools, who 
had been accustomed to think for themselves. It has been said that they 
carried " thinking bayonets." Some of the enlisted men were more com- 
petent to command than the officers whose orders they obeyed, who had 
secured their commissions by favor and influence. 

Had we been in the division commanded by General Baird as it moved 
towards the Confederates, we should have seen one colonel moving to 
the assault with his men in "double column at half distance" (to use the 
proper military term), instead of deploying them in line of battle. The 
colonel was brave. He was riding in front of the centre division, paying 
no attention to the shells bursting around his line. But there were men 
in the ranks who knew that it was not a good formation, and a sergeant 
shouted, " Colonel, why don't you deploy the column ?"(') The officer saw 
his mistake ; the column was deployed, and moved on in line of battle. 
We shall see this sergeant again. 

The advancing lines pass through the belt of timber and emerge upon 
the plain beyond. 

Suddenly the Union troops break into a run, rushing with a cheer tow- 
ards the Confederates, who have time to give only one volley before the 
Union men are upon them^ — Willich's brigade, in the centre of Wood's di- 
vision, being the first to swarm over the breastworks. Hazen's bi'igade on 
the right, and Beatty's on the left, are, a moment later, leaping the bar- 
rier. Sheridan has a little farther to go, but Wagner's and Harker's bri- 
gades the next minute are falling upon the astonished Confederates, some 
of whom throw down their guns and surrender while others flee. 

We come to the most remarkable occurrence of the war — an affair in 
which each soldier for the time being was his own commander, acting on 
his own responsibility. General Grant had not ordered an assault upon 
the ridge, had not contemplated such a movement ; but as he gazes upon 
the scene he sees Willich's men, not halting in the breastworks at the base 
of the ridge, but following the retreating Confederates up its side. Their 
enthusiasm has kindled with the success of the moment ; besides, it Avill 
be safer higher up the mountain than where they are. The soldiers in- 
stantly comprehend that in following the retreating Confederates the sixty 



LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN AND MISSIONARY RIDGE. 451 

cannon cannot rain canister upon them without cutting down their own 
men. !Not only Willich's, but Hazen's, Wagner's, Harker's, and Baird's 
troops rush up the steep ascent. 

General Grant and General Thomas and tlie officers grouped around 
them behold it with astonishment. Will they break Bragg's line? or 
will they soon be fleeing down the slope, a disordered mass? It is too 
late to send orders recalling them. They can only abide the result — 
making the best of it if a failure, the most of it if they break the Con- 
federate line at the centre. 

The advancing troops do not stop to load and fire. Men drop from 
the ranks, cut down by bursting shells, but no one falls out through faint- 
heartedness. The Confederate cannon begin to belch canister upon them, 
but on they go — half-way — two-thirds the way. They cannot run ; the 
ascent is too steep for running. They bring their bayonets to the charge, 
and rush with a hurrah upon the breastworks, Hazen breaking over Keyn- 
olds's Confederate brigade, Willich piercing Anderson's. Harker's brigade 
on the right, Turchins on the left, a moment later are seizing the Con- 
federate cannon, closing around the astonished Confederates. Five min- 
utes, and the Confederates to the right and left of Bragg's headquarters 
are swept away as a sand-bank disappears before the sudden rush of swirl- 
ing waters. The cannoneers fire their last charges into the faces of Baird's 
division ; but the next moment the men in blue are wheeling the muzzles 
of the guns eastward towards the mass of Confederates fleeing down the 
eastern slope. 

Corporal Kraemer, of the Forty-first Ohio Volunteers, rushing to one 
of the cannon, with his comrades wheeled it round with its muzzle pointed 
towards the fleeing Confederates, fired his musket over the vent, thus dis- 
charging the cannon, and sending its missiles upon Bragg's men.Q 

The centre of Sheridan's command was first over the breastworks a 
few rods south of Bragg's headquarters, but almost at the same instant 
the Confederate line was pierced in six places. Bragg tried to rally his 
panic-stricken troops, but was himself borne away, as was Rosecrans at 
Chickamauga. 

Some of the Confederates retreated north along the ridge to join Har- 
dee, w^ho, hearing the uproar and learning of the disaster, formed Cheat- 
ham's division to meet the Union troops. 

General Bragg says : " By a decided stand here the enemy was en- 
tirely checked, and that portion of our force to the right remained intact. 
All the left, however, except a portion of Bate's division, were entirely 
routed and in rapid flight, nearly all the artillery having been shamefully 



452 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

abandoned by its infantry support. Every effort which could be made by 
myself and staff and by many other mounted officers availed but little. A 
panic which I never before have witnessed seemed to have seized officers 
and men, and each seemed to be struggling for his personal safety, regard- 
less of his duty or his character. . . . 

" Having secured much of our artillery, they soon availed themselves 
of our panic, and turning our guns upon us, enfiladed our lines both right 
and left, and rendered them untenable."(®) 

A Union soldier in Baird's division thus pictures the scene : 

" We made our way across the works, and were sweeping the intrench- 
ments, flanking, and passing prisoners to the rear. To witness the aston- 
ishment, chagrin, and disappointment of some of these men on their being 
invited to surrender from such an unexpected quarter would have been 
most amusing had it not been under such serious circumstances. ... A 
piece of artillery, full mounted, some three hundred feet to the north-east, 
was making its best time down the eastern slope. ' Shoot the leaders !' 
yelled the same unmilitary sergeant that had ordered the colonel to deploy 
the column earlier in the action, and half a dozen loyal rifles brought 
down the leading team, which caused the whole to roll into a conglomer- 
ate mass of men and horses, topped out by a fine piece of artillery that 
had done its last service for the Confederacy."('°) 

Stewart's division, confronting Hooker, pressed at this moment by 
Osterhaus, Geary, and Cruft, broke in disorder, the Confederates fleeing 
in every direction. 

A Confederate soldier has given this account of what he saw : " The 
Yankees were cutting and slashing, and the cannoneers were running in 
every direction. I saw Deas's brigade throw down their guns and break 
like quarter-horses. Bragg was trying to rally them. I heard him say, 
'Here is your commander!' and the soldiers hallooed back, 'Here is your 
mule !' The whole army was routed. I ran on down the ridge, and 
there was one regiment, the First Tennessee, with their guns stacked, and 
drawing rations as if nothing was going on. Says I, ' Colonel Field, the 
whole army is routed and running ; hadn't you better be getting away from 
here ? Turner's battery has surrendered, Deas's brigade has thrown down 
their arms, and look there ! — that is the Stars and Stripes.!' He remarked, 
very coolly, ' You seem to be demoralized. We've whipped them here. 
We've captured two thousand prisoners and five stands of colors.' Just at 
this time General Bragg and staff rode up. Bragg had joined the Church 
at Shelbyville, but he had backslid at Missionary Eidge. He was curs- 
ing like a sailor. Says he, ' What's this ? Aha ! have you stacked your 



LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN AND MISSIONARY RIDGE. 455 

arras for a surrender?' 'No, sir/ says Field. 'Take arms! shoulder 
arms ! by the right flank, file right, march !' just as cool and deliberate as 
if on dress-parade. Bragg looked scared. He had put spurs to his horse, 
and was running like a scared dog before Colonel Field could answer him. 
Every word of this is fact. We at once became the rear -guard of the 
army. I felt sorry for Bragg. Poor fellow ! he looked so whipped, mor- 
tified, and chagrined at defeat ! And all along the line, when Bragg would 
pass, the soldiers would raise the yell, ' Here's your mule !' ' Bully for 
Bragg! he's great on retreat !'" (") 

Night has come. The sun has gone down behind Walden's Ridge, its 
departing rays falling upon the Stars and Stripes everywhere waving on 
Missionary Ridge, where an hour before the Confederates had stood, mas- 
ters of the situation, as they believed themselves to be. Under cover of 
the gathering darkness Hardee withdraws from the northern edge of the 
ridge, retreating across the Chickamauga. 

The battle was over. Bragg had met with a crushing defeat, losing forty 
cannon, seven thousand muskets, six thousand one hundred men as prison- 
ers, besides the killed, wounded, and missing. His army was demoralized. 
Longstreet could not rejoin him, and he retreated to Dalton, 

The troops of General Grant followed the retreating army to Tunnel 
Hill. There were sharp engagements between Cleburne's division — the 
rear-guard of Bragg's troops — and the pursuing Union brigades ; but for 
want of horses and supplies, General Grant could not enter upon a new 
campaign ; besides. General Burnside was besieged by Longstreet at Knox- 
ville, with provisions for only a week ; and unless relieved, East Tennessee 
would again fall into the hands of the Confederates. No time was to be 
lost. The troops were recalled from Tunnel Hill, and the corps com- 
manded by General Granger, and that commanded by General Sherman, 
with the Eleventh Corps, under General Howard, were ordered to hasten 
to the relief of General Burnside. 



NOTES TO CHAPTER XXII. 

( ') Bragg's Orders to Longstreet. 

( ^) Grant's Despatches. 

( ^) Grant," Personal Memoirs," vol. ii., p. 6L 

( ^) Idem, p. 42. 

( 5) Idem, p. 79. 

( ^) W. B. Hazeu, "Narrative of Military Service," p. 174. 

( ') H. Allspaugli, Thirty-first Ohio Regiment, National Tribune, June 2, 1887, 

( *) W. B. Hazeu, " Narrative of Military Service," p. 177- 

( ^) General Bragg's Report. 

('0) H. Allspaugh'. National Tribune, .June 2, 1887. 

(") Watkins's "Historj^ of First Tennessee Regiment," p. 104. 



456 MAKCHING TO VICTORY. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

DEFENCE OF KNOXVILLE. 

TXTE liave seen General Longstreet leaving Chattanooga to regain East 
' * Tennessee to the Confederacy, and reopen the railroad to Virginia. 
He had twenty-four thousand men and eighty cannon, but his supply of 
food was so scant that he was obliged to send out his wagons to gather 
grain from the farmers' wheat-stacks, which the soldiers threshed, and which 
was ground in the mills along the route — thus subsisting his army in j^art 
till his supply-trains arrived. 

The Union troops under General Burnside, in East Tennessee, were 
encamped in several places, that forage and food might be obtained instead 
of transporting supplies over the mountains from Kentucky. The Ninth 
Corps was thirty miles west of Knoxville, at Lenoir's, where there were two 
grist-mills. Other troops were at Knoxville and Cumberland Gap. 

General Longstreet laid his plan to strike a blow before Burnside 
could concentrate his scattered divisions. He reached the Holston River 
on November 14th, and began to construct his pontoon-bridge. Burnside 
had a pontoon across the river opposite the town of Loudon, but, seeing 
what Longstreet was intending to do, took it up and began to move liis 
troops towards Knoxville. The Confederates were marching on a parallel 
road, hoping to reach Campbell's Station, where the two roads come to- 
gether, in advance of the Union troops, and thus get between them and 
the other divisions. 

Rain was falling, and the mud so deep that Burnside's artillerymen 
were obliged to double their teams to get the cannon over miry j)laces. 
The Union wagons blocked the way of the troops, while there was nothing 
to obstruct Longstreet. Through the night the six thousand men of the 
Ninth Corps plodded through the mud, drenched with rain. Daylight 
was appearing when General Hartranft's division reached Campbell's Sta- 
tion, filing into a field, deploying in line of battle, to hold the road over 
which they knew the Confederates were marching. Scouts informed them 
that they were close at hand. 



DEFENCE OF KNOXVILLE. 457 

The wagon-train was Inimed on towards Knoxville. White's and Fer- 
rero's divisions, which were behind Hartranft's in the march, hastened 
towards the station. A few niinntes later the muskets of the skirmisliers 
were heard. Loiigstreet formed liis lines and advanced, but his troops 
were held in check till the Union trains were well on their way towards 
Knoxville, when the Union troops also took up their line of march. Long- 
street had been foiled in his plan. The Union trains were safe ; the scat- 
tered divisions were rapidly concentrating ; the pontoons were being laid 
at Knoxville, to enable Burnside to hold the hills on the south side of the 
river, and prevent the Confederates from planting their cannon there and 
bombarding the town. Soldiers, loyal citizens, negroes — all were at work 
with pickaxes and spades, constructing breastworks. The loyal women 
were baking bread, frying bacon, caring for the sick in the hospitals. The 
Union men had suffered so much from the Confederates they were de- 
termined that never again should the flag of the Confederacy wave in 
Knoxville. 

The town is situated on a plateau, on the north side of the Holston 
River, which has high, steep banks. The hills around are green and beau- 
tiful. North-west of the town the plateau slopes down to a valley with a 
creek winding through it. General Burnside's engineers built a dam across 
the stream and so flooded the valley. An earthwork was constructed on the 
highest hill west of the town, which was named Fort Sanders, in honor of 
a clear-headed, energetic, resolute officer, General Sanders, only twenty-one 
years old, who had been directing affairs at Knoxville, who w-as imparting 
to the troops his own enthusiasm and energy, and who was placed in com- 
mand of the defences on the hills on the south side of the river. 

General McLaws was sent by Longstreet up the south side of the 
Holston, to capture the hills npon which General Sanders had posted 
his troops. If they could be carried, cannon could be planted there, and 
shells sent into the town, and along the line of defence which Burnside 
had chosen. McLaws attempted it, but was repulsed with great slaughter, 
whereupon Longstreet determined to begin a siege. He would sit down 
and wait till Burnside was starved out, or, watching his opportunity, would 
rush upon the works. He sent a party with axes up the river to fell 
trees, build a great raft, and send it down-stream to break the pontoon- 
bridge ; but the Union troops picked up the logs, and used them for their 
bivouac fires. 

The main body of the Confederates were on the north bank of the 
river, in front of Fort Sanders and the Union breastworks which had been 
erected on College Hill. On the night of November 23d they gained a 



458 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

favorable position, but just at daylight the Twenty-first Massachusetts and 
Forty-eighth Pennsylvania regiments charged upon them, and regained all 
that had been lost. 

It was disheartening news that reached Longstreet three days later — 
that Hooker had swept over Lookout Mountain ; that Sherman had been 
pounding at the northern end of Missionary Ridge ; that Thomas had 
rushed up the slopes, carrying all before him ; that eighty cannon had been 
lost ; that the army was retreating into Georgia, and that communication 
with Bragg had been severed ; that Sherman was marching to relieve Burn- 
side ; that he must take care of himself. 

Longstreet saw that one of two things must be done, that he must 
act at once, or Sherman would be falling upon him : he must assault the 
Union fortifications — carry them at the point of the bayonet, or make 
his way eastward towards Virginia without a battle, which would be 
humiliating to his pride. If he could carry the intrenchments, gain 
Knoxville, defeat Burnside, before Sherman arrived, it would in some 
measure redeem what Bragg had lost. If he were to fail in the attempt, he 
could then make his way to Virginia. He determined to make the assault. 

We come to IS^ovember 29th. The key to Burnside's position was Fort 
Sanders. If that could be gained, the Union troops would be compelled 
to abandon Knoxville, and they would have no way of retreat except north- 
ward, over mountain roads, where they could obtain no subsistence. Gen- 
eral Longstreet did not know just what his troops would encounter in the 
way of obstructions. He probably knew that there was an abatis of fallen 
trees, with their branches interlocked, in front of Fort Sandei's, but did 
not know that lines of telegraph-wire had been stretched from stump to 
stump, to trip his men in their rush up the hill-side. 

Daylight was the hour chosen for the assault, to be made by three 
brigades. 

There are only two regiments in the fort — the Seventy-ninth New 
York and the Seventeenth Michigan. Up to the line of telegra^ah-wire, 
which trips them up, rush the Confederates; others go down before the 
fire from the fort; but the men pull the wires from the fastenings and 
rush on up to the abatis, the pioneers hewing their way with axes through 
the trees. They reach the ditch, with canister sweeping them down, and 
climb the parapet, onl}?^ to be shot down upon the embankment. 

Sergeant Frank Judge, of the Seventy -ninth New York, seizes the 
foremost Confederate by the collar and drags him into the fort a prisoner. 
Grenades have been piled along the parapet, which the soldiers touch off 
and toss into the ditch. Lieutenant Benjamin lights the fuses of the shells 



DEFENCE OF KNOXVILLE. 



459 



and rolls tliem down the parapet. Then come explosions and terrible 
slaughter. Two howitzers in the bastion at the angle of the fort sweep 
the ditch with canister. 

The Confederates, reinforced by the troops of the second line, once 
more climb the parapet. A soldier waves his flag to cheer them on, but 
he goes down, his life-blood pouring from a ghastly wound. Men dash 
out one another's brains with the butts of their muskets. There are sabre- 
strokes, pistol-shots, bayonet-thrusts ; but the Confederate column has lost 




ATTACK OP LONGSTREET ON FORT SANDERS. 

From a sketch made at the time. 



its aggressive force, and the living quickly flee. The ditch is filled with 
dead and dying, ninety-six dead bodies lying there when the struggle is 
over. One company of the Twentieth Michigan on the right, another of 
the Twenty-ninth Massachusetts on the left, leap over the parapet, and 
bring in more than two hundred prisoners and two flags. 

In a very few minutes one thousand one hundred Confederates have 
been killed or wounded, and three hundred captured. Burnside has lost 
only eight killed and a few wounded. 

It is a pitiable sight — the ground strewn with men who have fought 



460 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

SO bravely, and given their lives to establisli a government founded on 
human slavery. General Burnside is a humane man. He cannot endure 
the spectacle, and sends out a flag of truce, offering to Longstreet the priv- 
ilege of removing the wounded and burying the dead. The offer is court- 
eously accepted, the Confederate hospital corps appears upon the scene, 
and before night the slopes of Fort Sanders bear little evidence of the 
bloody conflict of the morning. 

The attacking force was McLaws's division. Burnside brought to the 
assistance of the trooj)s in the fort five companies of the Twenty-ninth 
Massachusetts and two of the Twentieth Michigan and a brifrade of Has- 
call's division. 

While Longstreet is being repulsed with such slaughter, let us go back 
to Chattanooga, or rather to Ringgold, where the troops under General 
Sherman have halted in their pursuit of Bragg. They were destroying 
the railroad, and marching to Cleveland. General Howard advanced so 
rapidly that he captured five car-loads of flour, the few Confederates there 
retreating north across the Hiawassee and hastening to join Longstreet. 
General Sherman did not receive orders to hasten to Burnside's relief till 
the evening of the 29th('), when a messenger came witli a letter from 
General Grant, informing him that General Granger had left Chattanooga 
by the river road, but feared he would not be able to reach Knoxville in 
season to relieve Burnside, and ordering him to take command of all the 
troops and move as rapidly as possible. 

The troops of General Sherman's corps had marched from Memphis to 
Chattanooga, and fought the battle of Missionary Ridge. They needed 
clothing, boots, blankets, and food. The nights were cold. They must 
ford streams and endure great hardships, but without a murmur they 
started. Through the night General Howard's troops were repairing the 
bridge which the Confederates had partially destroyed, and on the morn- 
ing of the 30th the divisions began their march towards Knoxville, nearly 
ninety miles distant. 

General Longstreet had left General Yaughn's brigade at Loudon to 
protect his pontoon-bridge across the Tennessee at that point. General 
Sherman's cavalry, on the evening of the 2d of December, came suddenly 
upon the Confederates, who destroyed the bridge, ran three locomotives 
and forty-three cars into the Tennessee River, abandoned all their pro- 
visions and four cannon, and fled in the night towards Knoxville. The 
Union troops helped themselves to the provisions. The cars and locomo- 
tives were a serious loss to the Confederates, for they could not readily 
be replaced. The loss of a locomotive to the Union army was of little 



DEFENCE OF KNOXVILLE. 461 

account, for all over the North founderies and machine-shops were 
constructing engines to meet the demand. 

General Sherman could not cross the Tennessee at Loudon, and pushed 
on to Morgantown to a ford ; but the river was swollen, and the water too 
deep to be forded. Houses were torn down, trees felled, a bridge con- 
structed, and at dark on the evening of the fourth the troops began to 
cross. Seven miles above Morgantown, General Howard, having captured 
a large number of wagons from the Confederates, ran them into the river 
in a line where the water was shoal, and the troops, by stepping from 
wagon to wagon, crossed the stream. (^) 

General Longstreet knew that the Union troops had a scant supply of 
provisions. Although repulsed in the attack on Fort Sanders, he still re- 
mained, hoping that Burnside would be obliged to surrender before the 
arrival of Sherman ; but he could linger no longer, and must begin his 
march towards Virginia. During the night of December 5th the Confed- 
erates disappeared, marching eastward, followed by Burnside and Granger. 
There was skirmishing between Longstreet's rear -guard and Burnside's 
advance; but the Confederates destroyed bridges and blocked the roads 
behind them. With their departure the Confederate flag disappeared 
forever from East Tennessee, which from the beginning of the war had 
been loyal to the Union. 

NOTES TO CHAPTER XXIII. 

(') "Memoirs of General W. T. Shermaa," vol. i., p. 407. 
(«) Idem, p. 409. 



462 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 



CHAPTER XXIY. 

EVENTS IN VIRGINIA. 

THE two great armies of the east — the Union Army of the Potomac, 
under General Meade, and the Confederate Army of i^orthern Vir- 
ginia, under General Lee — through August and September were on the 
banks of the Rapidan. We have seen Longstreet, with Hood's and 
McLaws's divisions of Lee's army, at Chickamauga and Knoxville, and we 
have also seen the Eleventh and Twelfth corps of Meade's army trans- 
ported to the West, and winning victory at Wauhatchie and Lookout 
Mountain, and turning Bragg's flank on Missionary Ridge. Both armies 
had been made smaller by the sending of those troops to the West, The 
term of service of several thousand Union soldiers had expired. On the 
Confederate side the remorseless conscription had brought new recruits to 
General Lee. No Confederate soldier could claim that his term of service 
had expired. The autocratic Confederate Government did not recognize 
any limit of service. Death or maiming for life was the only discharge 
the Confederate soldier could hope for. 

Had we been with the officers of the Signal Corps of the Army of the 
Potomac during September, we should have seen them looking steadily 
through their telescopes towards tlie Confederate signal-station on the top 
of Clark's Mountain, near General Lee's headquarters. By patient obser- 
vation they discovered the key of the Confederate code of signals, and 
read the despatches waved to the different commanders. On the after- 
noon of October 7th they read a message from General Stuart to Fitz- 
Hugh Lee, commanding a division of Confederate cavalry, to draw three 
days' rations of hard-bread and bacon, which indicated .a movement of 
some kind.(') General Meade was on the alert, and learned that Confed- 
erate cavalry and infantry were crossing the Upper Rapidan on the after- 
noon of the next day. General Lee felt himself strong enough to attempt 
to march round the right flank of the Army of the Potomac, repeating 
the movement of 1862 against Pope. He would, if possible, get between 
Meade and Washington, cut liim off from his supplies, defeat hini, and 
then cross the Potomac and menace the capital. 



EVENTS IN VIRGINIA. 463 

The provisions and supplies of the Union army were sent to Alexan- 
dria. Tents were packed, and on the 10th the Union troops were march- 
ing towards the Rappahannock. 

As the array left Brandy Station the Confederate cavalry made a sharp 
attack upon the Fifth Corps, which was guarding the rear. General 
Sykes and General Pleasonton saw a body of infantry, and came to the 
conclusion that the main part of Lee's army was still near Culpeper, 
General Meade thereupon ordered the army to turn about, and the troops 
accordingly recrossed the Rappahannock and marched back to Brandy 
Station. 

On the evening of the 12th the startling news came from General 
Gregg, who was on the Upper Rappahannock with a division of cavalry, 
that the whole of Lee's army was moving rapidly towards Warrenton, 
just as Stonewall Jackson had advanced twelve months before. At mid- 
night the Union troops began the weary tramp back again across the 
Rappahannock. The Second Corps, temporarily commanded by General 
Warren, who had seen the value of Little Round Top at Gettysburg, was 
the last to leave. 

At daybreak on the morning of the llrth, while the soldiers of Cald- 
well's division were cooking their coffee on a hill near the little hamlet of 
Auburn, north of Catlett's Station, a shower of shells came screaming 
through the dense fog and exploded among them. They could see noth- 
ing, and the shells had come from where they supposed the Union pickets 
to be. 

General Stuart, with the cavalry, during the night, while pressing 
eagerly upon the rear of the retreating army, suddenly discovered that he 
was between two columns of Union troops. The fog screened him. He 
allowed no talking, stationed men to keep the mules from braying, and 
waited for the Union troops to move on. Through the night he could 
hear the wagons and cannon rumbling past him.Q General Meade's 
headquarters were not far away, and had Stuart known it quite likely he 
would have hazarded a rush for the capture of the Union commander; 
but he waited in silence till he saw the kindling fires of Caldwell's divis- 
ion, and then ordered his artillery to send its volley of shells. 

There was consternation in the ranks of Caldwell's men, but they 
were veterans who had been in many conflicts, and quickly formed in line 
of battle. Rickett's battery wheeled into position, and the skirmishers 
of Hays's brigade advanced against Stuart, and the cavalry were di'iven. 
Colonel RufSn, of the !North Carolina cavalry, fell mortally wounded. 
Stuart, seeing that a brigade would soon be sweeping towards him, lim- 



464 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

bered up Lis cannon and disappeared in the fog. Other Confederate and 
Union batteries opened, and there was sharp cannonading ; but General 
Ewell, commanding the Confederates, did not wish to bring on a battle, 
and withdrew his troops in order to cany out tlie movement planned by 
General Lee, while the Second Corps moved on towards Bristoe Station, 
which is between two streams — Kettle Run, one and a half miles south, 
and Broad Bun, a short distance north of the station. 

The head of Webb's division, with two batteries, in the afternoon was 
marching along the north-west side of the railroad. General Hays's divis- 
ion was on the south-east side, followed by Gregg's cavalry and Caldwell's 
division. 

The Fifth Corps was in advance of the Second, and its rear brigade was 
resting a half mile north of Bristoe, when Heth's division of A. P. Hill's 
corps of Lee's army came through a piece of woods north - west of the 
station, and saw the LTnion troops. Poague's battery quickly sent its shells 
flying across the iield. The cannonade echoed over the hills and plains. 
General Warren heard it, and galloped forward. Brown's Rhode Island 
Battery went across Broad Run, and wheeled into position. General 
Webb had a quick eye, and he saw, a few rods to his right, the railroad, 
with excavations and embankments, and ordered his troops to use it for 
an intrenchment. The First Minnesota Regiment, which at sunset July 
2d, at Gettysburg, made its ever memorable charge, was on the skirmish 
line, and their muskets were flashing. 

Heth's Confederate division, in two lines of battle, was rapidly advan- 
cing. " Tell General Hays to move by the left flank, upon the double- 
quick, to the railroad cut,"(^) said Warren ; and the men, seeing how valua- 
ble a position it was, went upon the run. Five minutes, and the Union line 
of battle was formed along the railroad, with Arnold's and Rickett's bat- 
teries on hills in the rear, throwing their shells over the troops. 

Two Confederate divisions advanced — Heth's and Anderson's — charg- 
ing upon Mallon's brigade of Webb's division. Some of the Confederates 
reached the railroad, but were shot down by the Forty-second and Eighty- 
second New York. Other Confederates leaped upon the track in front of 
the Nineteenth Massachusetts, but were instantly shot. With a cheer the 
Union troops leaped over the track, rushed forward, and captured five of 
Poague's cannon, two colors, and four hundred and sixty prisoners from 
Davis's and Walker's brigades. The cannon were quickly drawn across 
the track, the soldiers leaping upon the guns, swinging their hats and 
giving a cheer. The charge was so sudden that the Confederates had no 
time to bring up reinforcements. 



EVENTS IN VIRGINIA. 465 

Tlie Second Corps was confronted not only by Hill's corps, l>ut the cav- 
alry scouts came riding in with the information that Ewell's corps was 
close at hand. All the other Union troops had gone on, and General War- 
ren was alone. He had met the assault with only two divisions, but Cald- 
well's arrived, and the line of battle was extended ; yet he had only eight 
thousand men to hold in check nearly three times their number of Confed- 
erates. Once more A. P. Hill advanced, but with caution. General Posey, 
commanding a brigade, was mortally wounded. The Confederate artillery 
— eight batteries — opene.d fire, but the Union troops, sheltered by the rail- 
road, suffered little. Ewell's brigades, as they arrived, deployed ready to 
fall upon Caldwell's division, which held the left of Warren's line ; but 
the sun was going down, and it was too late in the day for the Confederate 
commander to begin a general battle against veterans who had exhibited 
their valor in the battles of the Peninsula, Antietam, Fredericksburg, 
Chancellorsville, and who had rolled back Anderson and Pickett from 
Cemetery Ridge on the field of Gettysburg. 

The Union troops welcomed the darkness, for under it they could move 
away. Orders were issued in w-iiispers, every man laid his hand upon his 
tin cup and canteen to keep them from jingling. No fires were kindled. 
No soldier could strike a match to light his pipe. The artillery moved 
slowly, that no rutnbling of the wheels might be wafted on the night air 
to the ears of the Confederates, whose bivouac fires lighted all the plain — 
so near that the Union pickets could hear the conversation of the soldiers 
eating their supper. When the troops were beyond Broad Run silently 
the pickets stole away, followed by the cavalry. 

The next morning the Union army was at Centreville on ground which 
Meade had chosen for a defensive battle. But General Lee had no inten- 
tion of attacking the Union army in such a position. His plan had failed, 
and in the engagement at Bristoe he had lost nearly thirteen hundred 
men, including three generals, also five cannon. The Union loss was be- 
tween five and six hundred. 

Back towards the Rappahannock marched the Confederate army. Gen- 
eral Lee went into camp at Culpeper, with brigades guarding the fords of 
the Rappahannock. General Meade promptly followed. 

General Birney, commanding the Third Corps, of Meade's army, moved 
to Kelley's Ford, and placed his batteries on the northern bank. He did 
not wait for the pontoons, but the troops dashed into the river, rushed upon 
the Confederates on the south side, and captured five hundred of them. 
In the assault very few Union soldiers were killed or wounded. The artil- 
30 



4:66 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

lery opened so destructive a lire that no Confederate brigades could go to 
the aid of those left to guard the ford. 

General Early's division of Evvell's corps was on the north side of the 
Rappahannock, by the railroad, sheltered in the forts and behind breast- 
works which the Union troops had erected. General Sedgwick, command- 
ing the Fifth and Sixth corps, placed his batteries in a favorable position, 
and opened a terrific fire. At a signal Russell's and Upton's brigades of 
the Sixth Corps went on the run towards the works. There was a sharp 
engagement, three hundred of the Union troops going down ; but their 
comrades rushed on, and captured fifteen hundred prisoners, four cannon, 
and eight colors, and secured the passage of the river. The troops crossed 
the stream, and had General Meade attacked Lee vigorously on the morn- 
ing of the 8th of November, the probabilities are that he would have 
won a victory; for Lee, evidently not anticipating the movement, had not 
placed his troops in advantageous positions, and he quickly retreated across 
the Rapidan, while Meade once more established his headquarters at Cul- 
peper. It had been a campaign of marches, countermarches, and sharp 
engagements, with the advantage to the Army of the Potomac. 

The troops of General Lee were stationed along the railroad from 
Morton's Ford, on the Rapidan, to Cliarlottesville. The fords eastward 
were not guarded. Mine Run is a little stream which rises amid the 
hills east of Orange Court-house and trickles north to the Rapidan. Its 
banks are so steep, and the country so much of a wilderness, that General 
Lee did not think it necessary to build intrenchments or place troops 
in that direction to guard his flank. The Union scouts informed General 
Meade of the position of the Confederate army, and he planned a move- 
ment to cross the river, move up Mine Run, and get between Ewell's and 
Hill's corps. The movement was made, but there were so many delays 
that Lee was able to thro\v up strong intrenchments before Meade was 
ready to attack ; and instead of fighting a battle at such disadvantage, the 
troops were withdrawn, and came back to Culpeper to build huts and 
prepare for winter quarters. 

During the two years of the war the Union commanders had learned 
what the Confederate commander had understood from the besrinnino: — 
the value of mounted troops moving in compact bodies. The cavalry of 
both armies, during 1863, had made raids in rear of oj^posing forces to 
burn bridges on railroads, tear up the tracks, and destroy supplies. On 
both sides there had been successful as well as unsuccessful expeditions. 

The great opposing armies — east and west — were settling down into 
winter quarters ; Meade and Lee on the banks of the Rapidan ; Grant 



EVENTS IX VIRGINIA. 4G7 

at Chattanooga ; Bragg, superseded by Johnston, at Dalton, in Northern 
Georgia ; Bnrnside and Longstreet in Eastern Tennessee. While the sol- 
diers of the Union and Confederate armies were building their huts for 
the winter, a body of Union cavahy in West Virginia made a march 
which, for strategic movement, energetic action, hardship, sujffering, en- 
durance, and success, was not surpassed during the four years' conflict. 

A part of General Lee's army was at Gordonsville, and part at Charlottes- 
ville, whence a railroad runs M^est to Staunton, in the Shenandoah Valley, 
and thence westward to Covington. From Charlottesville another railroad 
runs south to Lynchburg, where it connects with the road leading from 
Richmond to Tennessee — all through rich and fertile valleys, which sup- 
plied the Confederate army with flour and bacon. The commissary-general 
had accumulated a large quantity of food at Staunton and also at Salem, 
sixty miles west of Lynchburg. General Halleck thought that if one of 
the Confederate depots of supplies could be destroyed it would greatly 
cripple the Confederate army. Staunton was so near to General Lee's 
main army, and there were so many Confederate cavalry in the Shenan- 
doah Vallej', no movement could be made in that direction. Could Salem 
be reached ? General Kelly, who was commanding the troops in West 
Virginia, and who was better acquainted with the country than any other 
Union commander, was called to Washington and consulted, and discre- 
tionary orders were given him to do what he thought was best. He ac- 
cordingly placed the matter in the hands of General Averill, who had 
shown excellent abilities as a cavahy commander. His division was at 
New Creek, a few miles west of Cumberland, on the Baltimore and 
Ohio Railroad, while Salem was two hundred miles south. Would it be 
possible, with winter setting in, with snow upon the summits of the Alle- 
ghanies, with rivers swollen by rain, to send a body of men that distance 
over mountain roads, past a watchful foe, through a country where a large 
portion of the people were supporters of the Confederacy, with any chance 
for their return ? Five separate bodies of Confederate cavalry, either of 
them of sufllcient strength to confront the troops which Averill would . 
have, must be eluded by strategy and rapid marching. Besides, General 
Lee, by using the railroad, could send a division of infantry to Salem at 
short notice, or Longstreet could move a portion of his command from 
Tennessee by rail. Seemingly there M-as little prospect of executing such 
a movement with any hojie of success. 

General Averill, after studying the situation of the various Confederate 
forces, resolved to enter upon the undertaking. General Scammon, who 
was in the Kanawha Valley, was directed to move eastward to the town 



i68 MARCHING TO VICTOKY. 

of Lewisbarg, in the direction of Staunton. At the same time, General 
Moor, who was at Beverly, was directed to march towards Staunton, and 
Colonel AVells, who was at Harper's Ferry, was sent up the Shenandoah 
Valley. These different bodies moving simultaneously with Averill, led 
the Confederates to think that Staunton was their common objective 
point. 

General Averill was well acquainted with the country, for he had been 
nearly to Salem in ISTovember. He knew that General Imboden, with 
one thousand five hundred troops, was near Harrisonburg, twenty miles 
north of Staunton ; that General Echols was west of the town, with anoth- 
er large force ; that General Jones was somewhere in the vicinity, with 
another brigade. The troops selected for the movement mustered one 
thousand five hundred, and had six cannon. They left New Creek the 
first week in December, and moved south to tlie little village of Peters- 
burg. A young lady, Miss Sallie Cunningham, who was ardently devoted 
to the Confederate cause, lived at Moorfield, and was visiting friends at 
Petersburg. She galloped home as fast as her horse would carry her, wrote 
a note, and sent it by a messenger to General Imboden, informing him of 
the movement of the Union troops, and said that there were six thou- 
sand of them. Imboden concluded that Averill was intending to strike 
Staunton. The information was telegraphed to General Lee at Gordons- 
ville, who sent General Early to Staunton to take command, and directed 
Fitz-Hugh Lee to hasten there witli his division of cavalry. 

General Averill detached Thoburn's brigade and sent it towards Staun- 
ton, while he himself moved rapidly soutli with his selected troops, and 
was far on his way towards Salem before the Confederates comprehended 
his design. The weather became suddenly cold, the mercury sinking to 
zero, rain, sleet, and snow falling, the wind blowing a gale ; but on, day 
and night, moved the cavalcade, with brief halts for rest. General Averill 
had taken few supplies, trusting that he could obtain hay and grain, but 
the horses had scant fare. They ascended steep mountains, over almost 
impassable roads. It was in the evening when they came to a house where 
there was a wedding. The building was surrounded, and several of the 
guests who were in Confederate uniforins were greatly surprised to find 
themselves prisoners. A bountiful supper had been prepared, which the 
Union soldiers ate, and not the wedding-guests. The bridegroom, being a 
Confederate soldier, was taken prisoner, whereupon the bride, with true 
allegiance and loyal love, determined to keep him company, and marched 
by his side to Salem, where General Averill released him, which made 
the bride very happy. 



EVENTS IN VIRGINIA. 



469 




AVERILT/S TROOP IN A STORM. 



On the 16th of December the division reached Salem, having marched 
two hundred miles. General Averill found two thousand barrels of flour, 
ten thousand bushels of wheat, one hundred thousand bushels of shelled 
corn and oats, with a great quantity of meat, salt, clothing, shoes, and other 
articles. The soldiers helped themselves to whatever they most needed ; 
the negroes and poor people were allowed to help themselves to flour and 
bacon, and the rest was burned. All the buildings containing Confederate 



4Y0 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

stores were destroyed, but General Arerill prohibited all pillaging, and 
his discipline was very strict. 

Most of the people of Salem were heart and soul with the Confederacy 
and kept aloof from the ti'oops, but a woman with a pale face came to 
Captain Ewing, commanding the artillery, and asked if she might take the 
flag of the battery a moment. The sergeant placed the Stars and Stripes 
in her hands. This Captain Swing's account : " I can never forget her 
look, as she eagerly and passionately folded it to her bosom, as a mother 
would her long-lost child when restored to her arms. For several minutes 
she remained sobbing aloud, and at last when she gave it back, it was with 
bright smiles through tears of real joy and gladness."(^) 

The railroad track was torn up and the telegraph destroyed, and the 
object of the movement had been accomplished. The return was one of 
terrible hardship and suffering, toiling over unfrequented roads, ascending 
mountains by zigzag routes, pulling the cannon up by ropes, fording rivers 
filled with floating ice, or wading through mountain torrents. Guerillas 
and small bodies of Confederate cavalry were hovering on his flank, assail- 
ing his rear, or gathering in front. The troops could not stop to build 
fires to dry tlieir clothes, which turned to icy coats of mail. There could 
be only short halts. They reached Greenbrier River, which was filled with 
floating ice — huge cakes swiftly sweeping past. It seemed impossible to 
cross it, but the order was imperative, and then came the plunge of the 
horses, the struggle in the current. The whole command finally reached 
the western shore, and was in a position where, at last, they could i-est, for 
two routes were open to them — one northward to Beverly, the other west 
down the Great Kanawha. 

The Confederates had been foiled in all their efforts to cut them off, 
and on Christmas-day, weary and worn, haggard for want of sleep and rest, 
tlie column entered Beverly, where a full supply of food awaited them, No 
Christmas feast of roast beef and plum-pudding, cake and wine, conld com- 
pare with the bacon, hard-bread, and coffee which the soldiers of Averill's 
command ate and drank on that Christmas evening, sheltered at last in their 
tents from the howling storm and the bitter cold amid the Alleghanies. 



NOTES TO CHAPTER XXIV. 

(') Walker, "History of the Second Ami}' Corps," p. 321. 
{^) McClellan's " Campaign of Stuart's Cavalry," p. 303. 
(^) Walker," History of the Second Army Corps," p. 849. 
(■*) Capt. J. M. Rife, "Averill's Raid," in National Tribune. 



CLOSE OF THE YEAR 1863. 471 



CHAPTER XXy. 

CLOSE OF THE YEAR 1863. 

nf'^HE Southern States had seceded from the Union to maintain the 
-L " Rights of the States ;" but if a State could sever its rehitions with 
the Union for any cause, why might not a county secede from a State? 
The people of Jones County, in Mississippi, began to discuss the question 
in the summer of 1862. The county is in the south-eastern part of the 
State, seventj'-five miles from Mobile, and comprises nearly twenty town- 
ships. The land is not fertile, the entire region being made up of pine- 
barren and swamps, traversed by winding creeks bordered by almost im- 
penetrable thickets. The streams trend southward, and find outlet in 
Pascagoula Bay. 

In 1860 the inhabitants numbered 3323 — the white male population 
being 1492. They were lumbermen, who earned a living by cutting the 
tall pine-trees and rafting the lumber to tide-water, or gathered tar and 
turpentine. They were opposed to the war, and when the Confederate 
Congress passed the act of conscription, which would compel those liable 
to do military duty to serve in the army, they determined to secede from 
Mississippi and set up a government of their own. They assembled in 
convention at the county court-house, in Ellisville, and passed an ordi- 
nance of secession, which reads as follows : 

"Whereas, the State of Mississippi has seen tit to withdraw from the Federal Union 
for reasons which appear justifiable; 

"And tcJiereaa we, the citizens of Jones County, claim the same right, thinking our 
grievances are sufficient by reason of an unjust law passed by the Congress of the Confed- 
erate States of America, forcing us to go to distant parts, etc., etc. 

''Therefore, he it resolved, that we sever the union heretofore existing between Jones 
County and the State of Mississippi, and proclaim our independence of the said State, and 
of the Confederate States of America; and we solemnly call upon Almighty God to wit- 
ness and bless this act." 

This occurred in Jefferson Davis's own State. Nathan Knight was 
elected President of the "Jones County Confederacy. "(') He had little 



472 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

education, but much common sense. The people had confidence in him, 
for lie was honest, brave, energetic, and resolute. Members of Congress 
and Senators were elected and laws passed, which were written out and 
posted on the trees along the roads, for there was not a printing-press in 
the county. The population increased very ra]3idly. Men who wanted to 
escape the conscription fled to Jones County, which had thus thrown off 
its allegiance to Mississippi and the Confederacy. Union men flocked 
thither to find refuge from persecution amid its swamps. Deserters from 
the army, who were tired of fighting, made their way to Ellisville with 
their muskets, to become citizens and soldiers of the " Jones County Con- 
federacy," as the new government was styled. In a short time the pop- 
ulation increased, it is said, to twenty thousand. ('■') 

Some of the people of the county wei'e Confederates. The Confed- 
erate Govermnent had passed laws against aliens, and had confiscated the 
property of Northern people. President Jefferson Davis had issued a proc- 
lamation in regard to aliens, and President Knight accordingly issued his 
proclamation requiring all aliens to leave the count3^ Some who did 
not go were shot and their buildings burned. An army Avas organized, 
and all men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five enrolled. No 
Confederate conscription officer dared to venture into President Knight's 
dominion. Provisions were needed, and the soldiers of the Jones County 
Confederacy made a raid upon the surrounding counties of the Southern 
Confederacy, and returned with a herd of cattle and pigs ; and a train of 
wagons loaded with supplies for the Confederate army was captured. 

The State of Mississippi, with its authority thus set at defiance, sent 
General Lowery with a force to crush out the government of President 
Kniffht, which met with a stubborn i-esistance. The seceders retreated to 
the swamps, and maintained their defiant attitude to the end of the war. 
Secession for the maintenance of State rights had its legitimate and natu- 
ral outcome in the action of the people of Jones County. No doubt this 
secession of a county from his own State was a great mortification to the 
President of the Southern Confederacy. 

The year 1863 was closing. Far different the outlook on the last day 
of December from what it was on the morning of January first, when the 
cannon were thundering in the undecided battle of Stone Piver. In the 
opening chapter of this volume we saw that to the people of the Union 
it was a day of uncertainty and gloom ; but with the victories of the year 
the despondency and doubt had disappeared, and they looked forward to 
a radiant future, with deepening convictions of the ultimate restoration of 
the Union and the wiping out of slavery, which had brought about the war. 



CLOSE OF THE YEAR 1863. 473 

With tlie opening of the year the people of the Soutli had anticipated 
a recognition of the Confederacy by England and France, its permanent 
establishment among the nations of the earth, and a speedy ending of the 
conflict. But the j^ear had been one of disaster. There had been only 
the victories at Chancellorsville and Chickamanga — both barren of advan- 
tageous results to the Confederate cause. 

The close of the year saw the Confederate Army of the West driven 
from Tennessee. The States west of the Mississippi were severed from 
the Confederacy and could render it no aid. Louisiana M'as lost. Jeifer- 
son Davis's own State had been ravaged by the armies of the Union, and 
its railroads destroyed. Once more the steamboats of the Mississippi were 
furrowing its waters from New Orleans to St. Louis, and the Confederate 
Government was powerless to prevent the increasing tide of commerce. 
Fort Sumter, the pride and glory of the Confederacy, though still occu- 
pied by a few Confederate troops, w^as a shapeless ruin, all its cannon 
silent, dismounted, and buried beneath its crumbled walls. From Morris 
Island, day and night, bomb -shells were sailing high in air across the 
waters of the bay, and exploding in Charleston. Weeds and grass were 
growing in streets where at the beginning of the year the drayman drove 
his rumbling team and the merchant bargained his goods. No longer 
the gathering of congregations in St. Philip's or St. Michael's on Sunday 
morning ; no more the sale of slaves in the mart within a stone's-throw 
of the hall where the ordinance for the secession of the State had been 
passed in 1861. Dwellings, stores, churches, slave-mart — all were aban- 
doned. Yery little sleep was. there for the inhabitants through the night 
preceding Christmas. This the account from a Charleston newspaper: 

" At 1 o'clock A.M. the enemy opened fire. Fast and furiously were 
the shells rained npon the city from five guns, three at Battery Gregg, one 
from Cumraing's Point, and one from the mortar battery. The shelling 
was more severe than upon former occasions, the enemy generally throw- 
ing from three to five shells simultaneously. Our batteries promptly re- 
j)lied, but without their usual effect in checking the bombardment, which 
was steadily maintained by the Yankees during the remainder of the night 
and all the following morning till half-past twelve o'clock. Up to that 
hour one hundred and thirty-four shells had been hurled into the city. . . . 
Several houses were struck. One aged man and a woman were wounded 
by the exploding shel]s."(') 

Charleston and Wilmington were the only seaports where communi- 
cation could be had with the outside world by the swift-sailing steamers 
built in England especially to ply between those ports and the Bermudas 



474 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

— lying low in the water, leaden-colored, entering and departing at night, 
some of tliem captured, others eluding the blockading fleets in the 
darkness. 

The Army of I'Torthern Virginia had been discomfited at Gettysburg 
with frightful losses. Ko more the confident belief that the flag of the 
Confederacy would ever wave above the dome of the Capitol in Wash- 
ington ; no more the sanguine expectation of July, that the invasion of 
Pennsylvania would bring about action by the British Parliament favor- 
able to the Confederacy. On the contrary, the iron-clad war-sliips which 
had been constructed for the Confederate Government, and which were 
ready for sea, M^ere jealously guarded and prevented from sailing by the 
frigates of Great Britain's navy. 

In January the newspapers of Pichmond and Charleston were profuse 
in their utterances of friendshij) for England, but in December they were 
full of words of resentment, contumely, and disparagement. There was still 
expectation that Louis Napoleon, Emperor of France, having entered upon 
the establishment of a monarchy in Mexico, with the French army in pos- 
session of the capital, and Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, preparing to 
cross the Atlantic and become emperor, would ally himself with the Con- 
federacy. With his permission formidable iron-clad vessels of w^ar were 
being constructed in the seaports of France for the Confederacy, which in 
due time, it was expected, would appear at Charleston and Wilmington, 
and send the blockading fleets to the bottom of the sea, and open those 
ports to the commerce of the world. This the one bright hope animating 
the Confederate Government. 

Far-seeing men who had favored secession, who had fought resolutely 
for the Confederacy, began to see that its power was waning. Thousands 
of Confederate soldiers saw it. These the words of a Confederate soldier 
to the author : 

" When Grant whirled Bragg from Missionary Pidge, I saw that the 
Government was up." Many of his comrades were as clear-sighted as him- 
self, and quietly stole away from their regiments, and were reported as de- 
serters. They returned to their homes or secreted themselves, not solely 
because they saw what the end would be, but because tliey felt that they 
had been outraged by the Confederate Government. They had enlisted 
for a year, but the Congress at Pichmond had disregarded its solemn ob- 
ligation, and was compelling them to serve to the end of the war. 

The Confederate Government had become a despotism. On April 16, 
1862, a law was passed which provided that persons "not liable to do mili- 
tary duty may be received as substitutes for those who are." Jefferson 



CLOSE OF THE YEAR 1863. 475 

Davis sent a message to Congress asking for the repeal of that law. Con- 
gress complied ; and during the last week of December, 1863, an act was 
passed abrogating and annulling the former act, under which many citizens 
had sent substitutes into the army. The new law provided that no person 
liable to do military duty should be exempted by the employment of a sub- 
stitute. Citizens who felt themselves outraged by such a proposed breach 
of good faith on the part of the Government employed a very able law- 
yer, John H. Gilmer, to plead with the members of Congress against the 
violation of good faith. He contended that the new law was unconsti- 
tutional. (') 

The men who had joined in a conspiracy to overthrow the government 
of the people and establish a slave oligarchy, who had filled the jails of 
Georgia and Alabama with citizens of Tennessee, whose only crime was 
their love for the Stars and Stripes, did not hesitate to violate its faith 
with its own citizens. The enactment of the law aroused resentment and 
increased tlie rising disaffection against Jefferson Davis. 

The forty-two persons who assembled at Montgomery and formed the 
Confederacy in February, 1861, established it on slavery. Alexander H. 
Stephens Iiad announced to the world that slavery was its corner-stone. 
That which the people of South Carolina and the cotton-growing States 
believed would be enduring, and which would make the Confederacy pow- 
erful among the nations, was rapidly crumbling. Wherever the ITnion 
armies marched the slaves disappeared. Probably there were few slaves in 
the Confederacy who had not heard of the proclamation of Abraham Lin- 
coln giving them their freedom. The news travelled fast from cabin to 
cabin, that men who had been slaves were marshalled beneath the Stars 
and Stripes and had attained the dignity of manhood at Fort Wagner by 
their intrepid conduct. 

The reiDresentatives of the Confederacy in England found that while 
the aristocracy of that country were anxious to see the United States 
divided and republican government overthrown, they did not like the 
institution of slavery ; that while the merchants, manufacturers, and ship- 
builders and men of the clubs wanted the United States to become a weak 
nation, they wanted the Confederacy to abolish slavery. 

In November, 1862, Mr. Mason, who was waiting in London to be rec- 
ognized as Minister of the Confederacy, wrote to Mr. Benjamin that any 
treaty of commerce which might be negotiated with England must in- 
clude a clause against the African slave-trade. Lord Donnonghmore, who 
was a warm friend of the South, informed Mr. Mason that Lord Palmer- 
ston never would agree to a treaty that did not contain such a prohibi- 



476 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

tion of the slave-trade, and that the House of Commons would not uphold 
a minister for a moment if he were to consent to a treaty with such prohi- 
bition omitted. 

This the reply of Mr. Mason : 

" I told him that I feared this would form a formidable obstacle, if per- 
sisted in, to any treaty. He must be aware that on all questions affecting 
African servitude our Government was naturally and necessarily sensitive 
when the subject was presented by a foreign power. "We had learned, 
from abundant experience, that the antislavery sentiment was always ag- 
gressive. The condition of society was one with which, in our opinion, 
the destinies of the South were indissolubly connected. "Q 

Mr. Slidell, writing from Paris in February, 1862, to Mr. Benjamin, 
said : 

" I often hear expressed the regret that slavery exists among us, and 
the suggesting of a hope that some steps may be taken for its ultimate, 
but gradual, extinction. . . . The sentiment against slavery in the abstract 
is as wide-spread in France as in England. "(") 

Jefferson Davis wrote a letter to Pope Pio Nono asking that the Church 
of Pome would wield its influence to put an end to the war. Mr. Dudley 
Mann was commissioned to proceed to the Vatican and present it. After 
the letter had been read the Pope entered into conversation with Mr. 
Mann, who wrote an account of the interview to Mr. Benjamin : 

" His Holiness now stated," wrote Mr. Mann, " to use liis own lan- 
guage, that ' Lincoln & Company ' had endeavored to create the impres- 
sion abroad that they were fighting for tlie abolition of slavery, and that 
perhaps it might be judicious in us to consent to general emancipation. 

" I replied that the subject of slavery was one over which the Govern- 
ment of the Confederate States, like that of the old States, had no control 
whatever ; that the States were as sovereign as France ; that true philan- 
thropy shuddered at the thought of the liberation of the slaves in the man- 
ner attempted by Lincoln & Company ; that such a procedure would be 
practically to convert the well-cared-for civilized negro into a semi-barbar- 
ism ; that such of our slaves as had been captured by the enemy were in an 
incomparably worse condition than while with their masters ; that they 
wished to return to their old homes ; that if indeed African slavery were 
an evil there was a Power which in its own good time would doubtless re- 
move the evil in a more gentle manner than that of causing the earth to 
be deluged with blood for its sudden overthrow."(') 

Mr. De Leon, who was sent to Europe to write articles for the news- 
papers favorable to the South, wrote this to Mr. Benjamin : 



CLOSE OF THE YEAR 1863. 477 

" The only difficulty we have to contend with is the slave ques- 
tion."Q 

Through its own representatives in foreign lands the Confederate Gov- 
ernment learned that the moral sense of the world was arrayed against 
slavery. To preserve that institution Jefferson Davis, Judali P. Benjamin, 
John Slidell, John M. Mason, and their fellow -conspirators had brought 
about secession, forcing the States from the Union against the will of a 
majority of the Southern people, established the Confederacy, and inaugu- 
rated the war. They ardently desired to be recognized as a nation by 
England and France and other European powers, but were confronted by 
the unwelcome truth that such a recognition was impossible so long as 
slavery was the corner-stone of the Confederacy. 

The illusive j^icture of the future power and glory of the South which 
Jefferson Davis had drawn on the evening of his inauguration as President, 
at Montgomery, in February, 1861, had faded away, and in its place was a 
blood-stained canvas, a portrayal of devastation and desolation, battle 
scenes and burning dwellings, hardship, suffering, woe, and a jjers^Dective 
of waning hopes and final subjugation. 

What could be done to make ultimate success possible ? The Rich- 
mond Examiner, ablest of all tlie newspapers of the South, with the 
close of the year proclaimed that slavery must be sacrificed if need be 
to secure independence. "It would be," said the Examiner, "a good 
bargain to secure material aid by a formal sacrifice of our institution of 
slavery-''^) 

Opinions which at the beginning of the war were firm and solid were 
beginning to change. But the war was not ended. There were still great 
resources available in the Confederate States. Slaves tilled the ground 
while the master and his sons fought the battles. Under the remorseless 
conscription thousands of soldiers would be swept into the army, and there 
was still an uncompromising defiance towards the North, and the deter- 
mination to fight to the bitter end. 

In the Northern States the victories of the year revived the patriotism 
of 1861, and veterans who had seen three years of service, who had been 
honorably discharged, voluntarily re-enlisted to serve to the end of the 
war. President Lincoln had issued in October a call for three hundred 
thousand troops. A great political party in the North was declaring that 
there must be peace at any price, but the men and women who were giv- 
ing their lives, their fortunes, and all that was dear to maintain their gov^- 
ernment, were more than ever determined that the war should go on till 
the last Confederate had laid down his arms, till slavery was swept from 



4T8 MARCHING TO VICTORY. 

the land, and the nation, redeemed and purified, should remain evermore 
a government of the people, based on the vrorth and dignity of man, 

"On man, as man, retaining yet, 

Howe'er debased and soiled and dim, 
The crown upon liis foreliead set, 
Tlie immortal ffift of God to liim." 



NOTES TO CHAPTER XXV. 

(') Alfred E. Lee, Magazine of American History, October, 1886, p. 387. 

C) Idem, p. 388. 

(») Charlexlon Mercury, December 26, 1863. 

(-*) John H. Gilmer, Richmond Dispatch, December 19, 1863. 

(^) Mason to Benjamin, unpublished Confederate State papers, November 4, 1862. 

C) Slidell to Benjamin, unpublished Confederate State papers, November 4, 1862. 

(■) ]\Iauu to Benjamin, unpublished Confederate State papers, August 18, 1863. 

(*) De Leon to Benjamin, unpublished Confederate State papers, July 30, 1862. 

(^) Richmond Examiner, quoted in Richmond Enquirer, January 3, 1864. 



INDEX. 



(B, Bntinh; C, Confederate ; U, ITnion.) 



Adaais, Charles Francis (U.), appointed 
Minister to Great Britain, 17; discloses Na- 
poleon's plans, 30 ; finds England aiding 
the Confederacy, 32; protests against the 
departure of the Enrica, 33; predicts the 
fate of Mr. Roebuck's motion, 333; protests 
against vessels being built for the Confed- 
eracy, 363 ; accuses England of making war 
upon the United States, 364. 

Alabama Regiment, Ninth, 156, 157; Forty- 
fourth, 243; Forty-eighth, 243. 

Alexander, E. P., Col. (C), 235, 265, 266, 369, 
270, 271. 

Allen, Captain (U.), 180. 

Ames, Adelbert, Gen.(U.), 169, 213, 217, 258. 

Anderson, G. B., Gen. (C), 278. 

Anderson, Major (U.), 352. 

Anderson, Patton, Gen. (C), 391, 413, 417, 
446, 451. 

Anderson, Robert H., Maj.-gen. (C), 109, 
111, 129, 131, 133, 145, 151, 156, 158, 197, 
210, 235, 236, 339, 345, 348, 350, 359, 263, 
364, 265, 372, 464, 465. 

Andrew, John A., Gov. of Massachusetts (U.), 
337, 343. 

Archer, James S., Gen.(C.), 202, 305, 206, 207, 
214, 265. 

Armistead, Lewis, Gen. (C), 365, 373, 375. 

Army of the Cumberland, (U.), 1, 36, 434, 
446, 449. 

Army of Northern Virginia (C), 463, 474. 

Army of the Potomac (U.), 2, 99, 104, 160, 
167, 188, 189, 315, 463. 

Army of the West (C.),473. 

Arrowsmith, Captain (U.), 140, 141. 

Audenreid, Major (U.), 461. 

Augur, C. CGen. (U.), 308. 

Averill, John T., Gen. (U.), 104, 108, 467, 468, 
469, 470. 

Ayers, Romeyn B., Gen. (U.), 246, 350. 



Baird, Absalom, Gen. (U.), 395, 396, 402, 
405, 407, 443, 449, 450, 451, 453. 

Baldwin, Colonel (U.), 334. 

Baldwin, General (C), 66, 385. 

Banks, Nathaniel P., Gen. (U.), 43, 44, 56, 
160,298,308,311. 

Barksdale, William, Gen. (C), 149, 155, 335, 
236, 248, 249, 250. 

Barlow, Francis C, Gen. (U.), 134, 135, 210, 
213, 214, 219, 220, 223, 231. 

Barnard, Judge, 325. 

Barnes's, James, Gen., division (U.), 345. 

Bartlett's brigade (U.), 156, 157. 

Barton, General (C), 70. 

Barton's brigade (C), 385. 

Bate, General (C), 403, 446, 447, 451. 

Bates, Colonel (U.). 304. 

Battery, Arnold's Rhode Island (U.), 265, 464; 
Backman's (C), 378; Best's (U.), 148; Bran- 
der's Virginia (C), 314; Brown's Rhode 
Island (U.), 464; Clark's (U.), 134, 240, 244, 
248; Carter's Virginia (C), 214; Cushing's 
Fourth United States (U.), 365, 376, 280 ; Dil- 
ger's First Ohio (U.), 139, 313, 314, 315, 319; 
Dimmick's (U.), 148, 149; Fifth Maine (U.), 
151, 313, 333, 358; Fifth Massachusetts (U.), 
340, 344; Fifteenth New York (U.), 340; 
First New York (U.), 313; First Ohio (U.), 
138, 143 ; Fourth United States, 312, 213, 
217; Gregg's (U.),473; Gaillard's (U.), 347; 
Hall's (U.), 206, 207, 208, 210, 223, 276; 
Hart's (U.), 340, 344; Hazlett's (U.), 345, 
346,347, 331; Lewis's (U.),151; Livingston's 
(U.), 134; Loomis's (U.).448; Martin's (U.), 
140, 142; Marye's (C), 301; McKethan's 
(C), 347; Ninth Massachusetts (U.), 240, 
244, 249; Pennington's (U.), 263; Poague's 
(C.),464; Randors(U.),263,278; Randolph's 
(U.), 240; Rhett's (C), 243; Rittenhouse's 
(U.), 265; Rorty's (U.), 265; Seeley's (U.), 



480 



INDEX. 



151; Second Maine (U.), 203, 210; Sixth 
New Yoric (U.), 104, 173; Smith's (U.), 76; 
Smith's Fourth New York (U.), 240, 243, 
244, 245 ; Thirteenth New York 213 ; 
Thomas's (U.), 253, 254; Tidball's (U.), 201 ; 
Wiederick's (U.), 258; Winslow's (U.), 240, 
244, 245; Woodruff's (U.), 265. 

Battles: Galveston, 36; Hatteras and Alabama, 
37; Arkansas Post, 43; Port Hudson— fleet 
and batteries,44 ; Queen of the West and City 
of Vicksburg,48; Port Gibson, 65; Jackson, 
68 ; Champion Hills, 70 ; Big Black River, 73 ; 
Montauk and Fort McAllister, 83; Charles- 
ton Harbor, 87; Montauk and Nashville, 87; 
monitors and Fort McAllister, 88; monitors 
and Fort Sumter, 88 ; Hartwood Church, 
104 ; Kelley's Ford, 107 ; Suffolk, 112 ; 
Chancellorsville, 137; Marye's Hill, Fred- 
ericksburg, 155; Salem Church, 156; Bran- 
dy Station, 169; Winchester,174; Aldie,178; 
Middleburg, 179; Upperville, 184; Gettys- 
burg, First Day, 201 ; Second Day, 228 ; 
Third Day, 259; Falling Waters, 282; siege 
of Vickshurg, 289; siege of Port Hudson, 
308; Morris Island, 334; monitors and Fort 
Wagner, 338; Fort Wagner, 343; siege of 
Fort Wagner, 356; bombardment of Sum- 
ter, 356; monitors and Fort Moultrie, 363; 
Dug Gap, 396; Chickamauga, 401; Wau- 
hatchie, 431 ; Lookout Mountain, 445; Mis- 
sionary Ridge, 445 ; Campbell's Station, 
457; Fort Sanders, 458; Bristoe, 464; Rap- 
pahannock Station, 466. 

Baxter's brigade, 204, 205, 213, 215, 320. 

Baylor, Lieutenant (C), 398. 

Beatty, John. Gen. (U.), 407, 450. 

Beauregard, G. T. , Gen. (C), 87, 348, 355, 356, 
359,361,363. 

Bell, Commodore (U.), 39. 

Benjamin, Judah P.(C.), receives letters from 
Mason, 26 ; from Slidell, 27 ; from Mr. 
Hotze, 164 ; from Mason, 165, 330, 331 ; 
sends troops to crush the Union party in 
East Tennessee, 370; gives orders for the 
treatment of Tennessee Unionists, 377; re- 
ceives a letter from Mason, 475 ; letters 
from Slidell and others regarding slavery, 
476. 

Benjamin, Lieutenant (U.), 458. 

Benning's brigade (C), 245. 

Benton's brigade (U.), 292. 

Berdan, Hiram, Col. (U.), 134, 148, 235. 

Berry, Hiram G., Gen. (U.), 140, 141, 142, 143, 

145,147, 148, 149,150. 
Riddle's, George H., brigade (U.), 212, 219. 



Bigelow, John, Capt. (U.), 240, 244, 248, 249. 

Birney, David B., Gen. (U.), 133, 134, 147, 
148, 465. 

Blair, F. P. (U.), 66, 73, 289, 291, 293, 294. 

Blake, Captain, Navy (U.), 39. 

Botts, John M. (U.), 6. 

Boweu, General (C), 66, 70, 73, 74, 285, 304. 

Bradley, Private (U.), 446. 

Bragg, Braxton (C), in Tennessee, 77; at Tul- 
lahoma, 160, 161 ; possible effect of mov- 
ing to Vicksburg, 294; driven from Ten- 
nessee, 316; sends Morgan on a raid, 328; 
loss by Morgan's surrender, 330 ; sends 
troops to East Tennessee, 370; joined by 
Buckner, 380; retreats from Murfreesboro, 
385; forced to Chattanooga, 386, 389, 390; 
reinforced, 391 ; moves towards Chicka- 
mauga, 392; prepares to attack Rosecrans, 
395,396,397,398; moves to cross the Chick- 
amauga, 399 ; joined by Longstreet, 401 ; 
in battle, 402, 405, 406, 407, 408, 415, 416 ; 
his probable loss, 419; at Missionary Ridge, 
420, 422, 424, 426, 431 ; sends Longstreet to 
East Tennessee, 434, 437; writes to Grant, 
438; .sends troops to Longstreet, 442; at- 
tacked, 445; withdraws troops from Look- 
out Mountain, 446, 447; attacked, 448, 449; 
defeated, 451, 452; retreats to Dalton, 455, 
458, 460; succeeded by Johnston, 467; his 
defeat a crusliing blow to the Confederacy, 
474. 

Brannan, J. M., Gen. (U.), 402, 407, 408, 409. 
413, 415, 416, 417, 418, 441. 

Breckinridge, John C, Gen. (C), 396, 405, 
407, 414, 419. 

Brewster's brigade (U.), 249. 

Brooks, Adjutant (U.), 208. 

Brooks's division (U.), 155, 156. 

Brown, General (C), 402. 

Brown, John (U.), 176. 

Brown, Lieutenant (U.), 183, 265, 269. 

Browulow, Rev. W. G. (U.), 368, 372. 

Buchanan, James, President, 381. 

Buckner, Simon B., Gen. (C), 378, 380, 391, 
397,401,405. 

Buell, Don Carlos, Gen. (U). 128. 

Buford, John, Gen. (U.), 169, 170, 173, 184, 
194, 195, 198, 200, 201, 202, 203, 209, 211, 
219, 230. 

Buford 's brigade (C), 73, 285. 

Bulloch, Captain (C), 33, 352. 

BurbridgQ, Stephen G., Gen. (U.), 292. 

Burling, George C, Col. (U.), 240, 248. 

Burnham's brigade (U.), 155, 156. 

Burns, John (U.), 204. 



INDEX. 



481 



Burnside, Ambrose E., Maj.-gen. (U.), dis- 
satisfaction ill liis arm3% 99; transferred to 
Ohio, 100; mentioned by Lougstreet, 162; 
sends reinforcements to Vicksburg, 297; at 
Cincinnati, 328; moves towards Knoxville, 
378; takes possession of the (C.) arsenal, 
380; moves east through Kentucky, 389; 
at Knoxville, 434; Grant sends a message 
to, 437; Bragg sends more troops against, 
442; reinforcements sent by Grant, 455; 
concentrates his troops, 456, 457; repels the 
attack on Fort Sanders, 458, 459, 460; fol- 
lows Longstreet east, 461, 467. 

Burrell, Colonel (U.), 36. 

Bushbeck, General (U.), 129, 135, 139. 

Butler, Benjamin F., Gen. (U.), 96. 

Caldwell's division (U.), 246. 250, 463, 464, 
465. 

Calef, Lieutenant (U.). 201, 202, 203, 205, 206. 

Candy's brigade (U.), 261. 

Carliu's brigade (U.), 446. 

Carney, Sergeant (U.), 346, 350. 

Carpenter, Lieutenant (U.), 140. 

Carr, Joseph B., Gen. (U.), 66, 69, 73, 233. 

Carrington, H. B., Col. (U.), 12. 

Carrol. General (C), 370, 371, 376. 

Carrol, Thomas R. (U.), 47, 258. 

Cesnola, Colonel (U.), 179. 

Chamberlain, Joshua L., Col. (U. ), 247. 

Chambliss, Colonel (C), 183, 185, 226. 

Charleston Battalion (C), 348. 

Chase, Salmon P. (U.), 14. 

Cheatham, B. F., Gen. (C), 385, 402, 405, 407, 
446, 447, 451. 

Churchill, T. J., Gen. (C), 40, 43. 

Clayton's brigade (C), 402. 

Cleburne's division (C), 396, 405, 407, 446, 
448, 455. 

Cochran's brigade (C), 285. 

Cockerell, General (C), 70, 73. 

Colgrove, Colonel (U.), 261. 

Colquitt's brigade (C), 136. 

Colston's division (C), 136, 140, 152. 

Colville, Colonel (U.), 253, 254. 

Confederacy, the, object of, 2; recognized by 
Great Britain as a war-making power, 18; 
founded on slaverj^ 114 ; recognition by 
England and France desired, 163; the im- 
portance of Vicksburg to, 285; its losses, 
316, 317; effect of Gettysburg and Vicks- 
burg on its English friends, 330; its high 
tide, 332; opposed in East Tennessee, 366; 
controls the treasury of Tennessee, 367; 
its conscription, 378; the Lawrence massa- 

31 



ere a result of, 384; imitated by the "Jones 
County Confederac}^" 472; its power wan- 
ing, 473, 474; slavery its corner-stone, 475, 
477. 

Confederate cotton loan, 165. 

Connecticut Regiment (U.), Sixth, 337, 341, 
345,346; Seventh, 338; Eighth, 112; Tenth, 
343; Fourteenth, 264; Seventeenth, 216, 
217. 

Conscription act. Confederate, 6. 

Copperhead, 9, 321, 343. 

Corcoran, Michael, Gen. (U.), 113. 

Corse's brigade (U.), 448. 

Costar, General (U.), 223, 263. 

Couch, D.N., Gen. (U.), 150, 175. 

Crawford's brigade (U.), 246. 

Crittenden, George B., Gen. (C), 372. 

Crittenden, Thomas L., Gen. (U.). 390, 392, 
395, 396, 397, 398, 399, 405. 413, 415, 416. 

Crosby, Captain (U.), 142. 

Cross's brigade (U.), 246. 

Croxton's brigade (U.), 402. 

Cruft's brigade (U.), 442, 445, 452. 

Crutchfield, Captain (C), 143. 

Cummings, General (C), 70, 73, 285. 

Cunningham. Miss Sallie (C), 468. 

Curtiu, A. G., Governor of Pennsylvania (U.), 
175, 188. 

Gushing, Lieutenant (U.), Ill, 112. 

Custer, George A., Gen. (U.), 226. 

Cutler's brigade, 203, 205, 206, 207, 212, 215, 
219. 

Dahlgren, Admiral (U.), 359, 363. 

Davis. Colonel (U.), 170. 

Davis, Jefferson (C), controls the men of the 
South. 5; message of. to the Confederate 
Congress. 8; commissions Semmes Captain 
of the Navy, 34; speaks at Vicksburg, 56; 
sends messages to Pemberton and Johns- 
ton, 67; announces the blockade of Charles- 
ton raised, 87; expects aid from England, 
114. 164; his government built on slavery, 
177 ; feelings towards Johnston, 294 ; or- 
ders Johnston to attack Grant, 297; men- 
tioned by pickets, 298; a Richmond paper 
his organ, 317; controls the militarj^ force 
of Tennessee, 367 , Governor Harris, of 
Tennessee, writes to, 370 ; grants request 
of a Tennessee girl for her father's life, 
376; visits the army at Lookout Mountain, 
424 ; addresses the soldiers, 425 ; plans to 
expel Burnside from Tennessee, 434 ; a 
county of his State secedes, 471, 472; his 
State invaded, 473 ; dissatisfaction of the 



482 



INDEX. 



people with, 475; writes to the Pope, 476; 

changes since his inauguration, 477. 
Davis, Sergeant (U. ), 446. 
Davis's brigade (C), 195,203,205,206,207,208, 

214, 409, 464. 
Davis's division (U.), 402, 408, 415, 416, 461. 
Deas's brigade (C), 417, 452. 
De Courcy, Colonel (C), 378. 
De Leon, Mr. (C), 476. 
De Trobriand's brigade (U.), 240, 245, 246. 
Delaware brigade, First (U.), 264. 
Dessane, Captain (U.), 138. 
Devens, Charles, Gen. (U.), 139, 140. 
Devereux, Colonel (U.), 276. 
Devin, Thomas C, Gen. (U.), 133, 135, 138, 

195,201,205. 
Dole's brigade (C), 136,139,214,215,219,223 

233. 
Donnoughmore, Lord, 475. 
Doubleday, Abner, Gen. (U.), 128, 206, 208, 

209, 210, 216. 219. 
Douglass, Charles S. (U.), 3G8. 
Dudley, Captain (U.), 140. 
Duffie, Alfred N., Col. (U.), 104,108,169,173, 

178, 179, 180, 183. 
Dupont, Admiral (U.), 98. 

Early, Jubal, Gen. (C), at Fredericksburg, 
152, 155 ; at Hamilton's Crossing, 157 ; at 
Banks's Ford, 158 ; on the way to York, 
185, 186, 188 ; enters York, 19i, 194 ; en- 
gages with Colonel Frick at Wrightsville, 
192 ; near Gettysburg, 196 ; reaches the 
town, 214,216,219,220r257; Stuart's search 
for, 226; attacked at Rappahannock Sta- 
tion, 466; sent to Staunton, 468. 

Echols, John, Gen. (C), 468. 

Ector's brigade (C), 297, 402. 

Ellet, Alfred W., Col. (U.), 48. 

Emilio, Captain (U.), 346. 

Erickson, Lieutenant (U.), 248, 249. 

Erlanger, Baron, 164. 

Eustis's brigade (U.), 155, 258. 

Evans, General (C), 297. 

Ewell, R. S., Gen. (C), 464, 465, 466. 
. Ewing, Captain (U.), 291, 292, 470. 

Farnsworth, E. J., Gen. (U.), 226, 278. 
Farragut, Admiral (U.),43, 44, 47, 52, 95, 308. 
Featherstone's brigade (C), 73. 
Ferrero's division (U.), 457. 
Field, Colonel (C), 265, 452, 455. 
Foltz, Surgeon (U.), 44. 
Foote, H. S. (C.),6, 8. 
Forney, General (C), 285, 304. 



Forrest, N. B., Gen. (C), 402, 420, 424. 

Forts : Anderson, 109 ; Donelson, 94, 95 
Hindman, 40, 43; Johnson, 359; Marshal 
356; McAllister, 87, 88; Moultrie, 91, 93, 
356, 363 ; Pemberton, 54, 65 ; Preble, 353 
Pulaski, 333 ; Ripley, 359 ; Sanders, 457 
458, 461 ; Sumter, 2, 83, 88, 91, 92, 94, 334 

337, 338, 345, 349, 355, 356, 359, 360, 363 
366, 473; Wagner, 91, 333, 334, 337, 338 
341, 344, 345, 347, 349, 350, 355, 356, 360 
363, 475; Warren, 21; Wood, 441, 448, 449 

Foster, J. G., Gen. (U.), 109, 378. 

Fowler, Colonel (U.), 208. 

Franklin's brigade (U.), 148. 

Eraser, General (U.), 381. 

Freemautle, Lieutenant-colonel, 230, 277. 

French, William H., Gen. (U.), 178, 189, 190, 

281. 
French's division (C), 111, 112. 
Frick, Colonel (U.), 192. 
Fullerton, Colonel (U.), 414, 415. 

Gamble, William, Gen. (U.), 195, 201, 205. 
Gardner, General (C), 44, 77, 81, 308. 311. 
Garfield, James A., Gen. (U.), 416, 417, 418. 
Garnett, Richard (C), 265, 271, 273. 
Geary, John W., Gen. (U.), 148, 151, 261, 431. 

432. 442, 445, 452. 
Geible, Sergeant (U.). 258. 
Georgia Regiment (C), Seventh, 370, 371: 

Ninth, 278; Sixteenth, 370; Thirty-second, 

348; Fiftieth, 248. 
Getty, George W., Gen. (U.), 111. 112. 
Gibbon's division (U.), 146, 152, 155, 158, 233, 

250, 264, 265, 273. 
Gilmer, John H. (C), 475. 
Gilmore, Qnincy A., Gen. (U.), 333, 334, 337, 

338, 341, 347, 348, 349, 355, 356, 359, 360, 
363. 

Gist, Colonel (C), 68, 297, 446, 448. 

Gordon, J. B., Gen. (C). 192, 214, 219, 220. 

Graham, General (U.), 134, 147, 240, 248, 249. 

Granger, Gordon, Gen. (U.), 398,399,413,414, 
415, 416, 417, 418, 442, 455, 460, 461 . 

Grant, Ulysses S. (U.), in Mississippi, 40 ; 
takes command at mouth of the Arkansas, 
43; rigs a mock steamer, 57; tries to turn 
the Mississippi, 52; his removal attempted, 
57; obstacles in his wa3',58; lays new plans, 
62 ; orders Sherman to join him, 66 ; re- 
ceives orders from Halleck, 67; in rear of 
Vicksburg,68, 69; at Champion Hills,70, 74; 
in the Vicksburg campaign, 81, 83, 160, 
161 ; attacks the city, 285^, 286, 289, 290, 
292; misled by despatches from McCler- 



INDEX. 



483 



nand, 293; plans a new campaign, 394; 
receives more troops, 297; builds intrench- 
ments, 298; his defeat expected by Confed- 
erates, 300; prevents Johnston from reach- 
ing the citj% 303 ; meets Pemberton to 
arrange terms of surrender, 304 ; enters 
Vicksburg, 307; sends word to Banks, 311; 
England hears of his victory, 332; his suc- 
cess brings relief to East Tennessee, 378; 
ordered to report at Cairo, 421 ; meets Mr. 
Stanton, 422 ; reaches Chattanooga, 425, 
426 ; gives General Smith charge of the 
Lookout Valley movement, 428 ; orders 
Sherman to hurry east, 433; sends message 
to Burnside, 437 ; receives a letter from 
Bragg, 438; prepares to attack Missionary 
Ridge, 441, 442; renews the battle, 446, 448, 
449, 451 ; sends reinforcements to Burnside, 
455, 460. 

Gray, Surgeon (U.), 461. 

Green, General (C), 66, 70, 73, 285. 

Green's brigade (U.), 257, 261. 

Gregg, David McM., Gen. (U.), at Brandy 
Station, 169, 173; at Aldie, 179, 180, 184; 
at Gettysburg, 263, 278; captures prisoners 
at Williamsport, 281.; on the Upper Rap- 
pahannock, 463, 464. 

Gregg, John Irvin, Gen. (U.), 263. 

Gregg, Maxey, Gen. (C), 67, 68, 398, 417. 

Gregg's cavalry (U.), 169, 170, 188, 194, 226, 
262, 281. 

Grierson, Benjamin H., Gen. (U.), 65, 74, 77, 
78, 81. 82, 297, 308. 

Griffith, Sergeant (U). 292. 

Grose's brigade (U.), 418, 445. 

Haddock, Adjutant (U.), 140, 141. 

Halleck, H. W., Gen. (U.), urges Grant to 
action, 57; orders him back to Port Hud- 
son, 67; uncertain as to Lee's plans, 177; 
refuses to place French's troops under 
Hooker's command, 178, 189 ; orders the 
arrest of Hooker, 190; orders Grant's rein- 
forcement, 297; sends orders to Rosecrans, 
386 ; deceived as to the Confederate move- 
ments, 392; orders Grant to reinforce Rose- 
crans, 421 ; gives discretionary orders to 
General Kelley, 467. 

Hallowell, Lieutenant (U.), 344, 345. 

Hamilton, Captain (C), 238. 

Hammond, Major (U.), 226. 

Hammond, jMr., 114. 

Hampton, Wade, Gen. (C), 184, 185, 188, 226, 
278. 

Hancock, W. S., Gen. (U.), at Chancellors- 



ville, 148, 151; turns Stuart back at Hay- 
market, 185; commands the Second Corps, 
194, 196; directs the battle at Gettysburg, 
224, 225 ; relieved by Meade's arrival, 228 ; 
takes command of Sickles's troops, 249, 250, 
253, 258, in the third day's battle, 272,276. 

Hardee, General (C), 446, 447, 451, 452. 

Hardie, Colonel (U.), 189. 

Harker's brigade (U.), 450, 451. 

Harney, Major (U.), 207. 

Harris, Isham G., Governor of Tennessee (C), 
366,367,370,371. 

Harrison, Scout (C), 174, 193. 

Harrow's brigade (U.), 276. 

Hart, Major (C), 170. 

Hartranft, John F., Gen. (U.). 456, 457. 

Hartsuff, George, Gen. (U.), 378. 

Hascall, Milo S., Gen. (U.), 460. 

Hatch, Colonel (U.), 77. 

Hayes, Alexander, Gen.(U.), 150, 264, 265, 272, 

463, 464. 

Hays's brigade (C), 155, 214, 219, 257. 

Hazard, John G., Capt. (U.), 265. 

Hazen, William B.. Gen. (U.), 390, 391, 405, 
418,427,428, 431.450, 451. 

Hecker, Colonel (U.), 139. 

Heckman's brigade (U.), 213. 

Heintzelman, Samuel P., Gen. (U.), 178. 

Herbert, General (C), 285, 291. 

Herron, Francis J., Gen. (U.), 297. 

Heth, Harry, Gen. (C), 149, 195, 197, 201, 
202, 205, 214, 219, 230, 264, 272, 464. 

Hickman, Captain (U.), 138. 

Higginson, T. W., Col. (U.), 97. 

Hill, A. P., Gen. (C), at Chancellorsville, 132, 
136, 142, 143, 144, 145, 152; a corps com- 
mander, 166: on the way to Cnlpeper, 177; 
at Chambersburg, 186, 188 ; ordered tow- 
ards Gettysburg, 194, 195, 196, 197, 200; a 
part of his troops enter the town, 201 ; 
sends reinforcements to Heth, 202, 211; 
arrives at Gettysburg, 213, 214; praises the 
bravery of a Union color-bearer, 220; con- 
sults with Lee, 230; the third day's battle, 
259, 262, 264, 265, 269; consults with Lee, 
279; attacks the Union troops at Bristoe, 

464, 465; on the Rapidan, 466. 

Hill, D. H., Gen. (C ). in North Carolina, 109. 

Ill; joins Longstreet, 113; joins Bragg at 

Chickamauga, 401 ; placed under Polk, 405 ; 

fails to receive the order to attack, 406; 

quoted from, 407; in battle, 414; sent east, 

420. 
Hill, Private (U.), 446. 
Hilliard, Henry W. (C. ), 367. 



484 



INDEX. 



Hiudman, Thomas C, Gen. (C). 396, 405, 
409, 413, 417, 419, 424. 

Hobson, E. H., Gen. (U.), 329. 

Hollman, Colonel (U.), 206. 

Hoke's brigade (C), 214, 219, 257. 

Hood, John B., Gen. (C), 109, 111, 112, 197, 
235, 237, 238, 239, 243, 246, 248, 391, 398, 
402, 408, 409, 462. 

Hooker, Joseph, Gen. (U.), commander of 
Army of the Potomac, 100 ; grants fur- 
loughs, 103; devises a system of badges, 
104; difficulties in his way, 127; his plan 
upset by rain, 128 ; at Chancellorsville, 
129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 139, 141, 
142, 145, 146, 147, 149; injured by a pillar, 
150; north of Chancellorsville, 152, 157; 
consults with his officers, 158; opinions as 
to his course, 159; Lee's plans against, 161, 
162; Bends despatches to Washington, 167; 
receives advice from Lincoln, 168; uncertain 
as to Lee's plans, 177; asks control of Gen- 
eral French's troops, 178; Stuart's instruc- 
tions regarding, 185; moves north, 188; re- 
lieved of his command at his request, 189; 
his arrest ordered by Halleck, 190; com- 
mands troops from the Potomac, 421 ; at 
Bridgeport, 427; reaches Lookout Valley, 
428; reinforces Geary at Wauhatchie, 431 ; 
432; his rapid journey from the East, 437; 
in the Valley, 441 ; attacks Lookout Mount- 
ain, 442, 445; victorious, 446; attacks Mis- 
sionary Ridge, 447, 448,449, 452; Longstreet 
hears of his victory, 458. 

Hotchkiss, Captain (C), 144. 

Hotchkiss, General (C), 127. 

Hotze, Mr. (C), 164. 

Hovey, Alvin P., Gen. (U.), 69, 70, 73. 

Howard, Charles, Maj. (U.), 216, 233. 

Howard, O. O., Gen. (U.), at Chancellors- 
ville, 129, 133, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 139, 
140,141, 148; atEmmettsburg, 196; ordered 
to Gettysburg, 203 ; arrives, 208 ; made 
commander of the right wing by Reyn- 
olds's death, 209, 210, 211, 212, 214, 216 ; 
relieved by Hancock, 225, 228, 233, 262, 
281 ; goes west with troops, 421 ; sends 
troops to Geary's aid, 431; at Chattanoo- 
ga, 442, 446 ; sent to Burnside's relief at 
Knoxville, 455, 460. 

Howe's division (U. ), 155, 156. 

Huber, Mr. (U.), 187. 

Huey, Major (U.), 40. 

Hughes, Archbishop (U.), 327. 

Humphreys, Andrew A., Gen. (U.), 228, 233, 
240, 249, 250. 



Hunt, Henry S., Gen. (U.), 151, 239, 240, 265, 

266, 270, 271, 281. 
Hunter, David, Gen. (U.), 95, 96, 98. 
Huntington, Captain (U.), 142, 147. 
Hurlburt, Stephen A., Gen. (U.), 294. 

Illinois Regiment (U.), First, 74; Si.xth, 
74; Seventh, 84; Eighth, 170; Nineteenth, 
396; Seventy-seventh, 292; Eighty-second, 
139, 140. 

Imboden, J. D., Gen. (C), 177, 193, 197, 468. 

Indiana Regiment (U. ), Nineteenth, 220; 
Twenty-seventh. 150, 261. 

Iowa Regiment (U ), Second, 74, 77; Twen- 
ty-first, 292; Twenty-second, 292. 

Iverson's brigade (C), 136, 149, 214, 215, 216. 

Jackson, T. J. (Stonewall), Gen. (C), ordered 
to Port Royal, 128 ; joins Lee at Chan- 
cellorsville, 131 ; consults with Lee, 132 
moves to gain Hooker's flank, 133, 134, 135 
136, 137, 139, 140, 141, 142; death, 143, 144 
his troops commanded b}^ Stuart, 145; oth- 
er mention, 146, 148. 149, 152, 159, 160, 463. 

James, Adjutant (U.), 344, 345. 

Jenkins, General (C), 177, 185, 192, 193, 197, 
263. 

Johns, Colonel (U.), 155, 156. 

Johnson, Andrew (U.), 368. 

Johnson, B. R., Gen. (C), 408, 409, 413, 417. 

Johnson, Colonel (C), Engineer, 235. 

Johnson's brigade (U.), 402, 405, 417, 442, 449. 

Johnson's division (C), 185, 186, 188, 197. 
214, 257, 259, 262, 398, 402, 407. 

Johnston, Joseph E., Gen. (C), arrives at 
Jackson, 67 ; defeated, 68 ; moves to join 
Pemberton, 69, 77, 82, 161, 285 ; his re- 
quests ignored by Jefferson Davis, 294 ; 
gathers troops at Canton, 297; exchanges 
messages with Pemberton, 298 ; expected 
at Vicksburg, 300; kept away by Grant, 
303; turned back by Sherman, 307; sends 
message to Gardner, 308; sends reinforce- 
ments to Bragg, 391, 396; succeeds Bragg 
at Dalton, 467. 

Jones, Captain (U.), 327. 

Jones County Confederacy, 471, 472. 

Jones's brigade (C), 152, 169, 170, 184, 193, 
194, 434. 

Judah, Henry M., Gen. (U.), 329. 

Judge, Sergeant (U.), 458. 

Judson, General (C), 127. 

Kane's brigade (U.), 261. 
Keenan, Major (U.), 140, 141. 



INDEX. 



485 



Kelley, B. F., Gen. (U.), 177, 246. 467. 
Kemper, J. L., Gee. (C), 265, 272. 
Kentucky Regiment (U.), Fifth, 450; Eigbtli, 

446. 
Kershaw's brigade (C), 245, 248, 249, 408, 

409, 413, 417. 
Keyes, Erasmus D., Gen. (U.), 109, 178. 
Kifpatrick, Judson, Gen. (U.), 178, 179, 180, 

226, 263, 281, 282. 
Kimball, Nathan, Gen. (U.), 297. 
Kirby, Major (U.), 56. 
Knight, Nathan, 471, 472. 
Knights of the Golden Circle, 10, 322. 
Knipe's brigade (U.), 149. 
Kraemer, Corporal (U.), 252. 
Kryzanowski, Waldemir, Gen. (U.), 213. 

Lamson, Lieutenant (U.), 111. 

Landram, Wm. J., Gen. (U.), 292. 

Lane, James H., Gen. (U.), 383. 

Lane's brigade (C), 149, 214, 265. 

Lang, Colonel (C), 170. 

Lauman, Jacob G., Gen. (U.), 294, 297, 307, 
312. 

Law, E. M., Gen. (C), 231, 237, 243, 245. 

Lawler's brigade (U.), 292. 

Lea, Lieutenant, Navy (U. ), 39. 

Leadbeater, Colonel (C), 370. 

Lee, Colonel (C), 70, 285. 

Lee, Fitz-Hugh, Gen. (C), 104, 108, 109, 130, 
135, 136, 168, 185, 226, 263, 462, 468. 

Lee, Major (C), 406. 

Lee, Robert E. , Gen. (C. ), on the Rappahan- 
nock, 99, 127, 128, 131, 132; at Chancellors- 
ville, 141, 142, 145, 146, 147, 148, 151, 152, 
156, 158; at Fredericksburg, 159, 160; con- 
sults with Longstreet, 161, 162; prepares to 
invade Pennsylvania, 164, 165, 166,167,168; 
obliged to change his plans, 173, 174; ad- 
vice of Lincoln to Hooker concerning, 175; 
his plans unknown to the Union army, 174, 
178; orders of, to Evvell and Stuart, 185; at 
Chambersburg, 186, 187, 188,189, 192, 193; 
receives information from Harrison, 194; at 
Greenwood, 197 ; at Cashtown, 201, 210 ; 
talks with Longstreet at Gettysburg, 225; 
Meade's plan for attacking, 229; prepares 
for battle, 230, 231, 235, 239 ; size of his 
army, 240; plans to renew the attack, 259, 
260, 262, 264, 270, 277, 279 ; distressed by the 
defeat, 280; moves south, 281; reaches Vir- 
ginia, 282; mentioned in letters from Eng- 
land, 330, 331 ; England hears of his defeat, 
332; sends troops to Bragg, 391; moves up 
the Rappahannock, 462, 463; at Culpeper, 



465; at Gordonsville, 466, 467; deceived as 
to Averill's plans, 468. 

Lee, W. H. F., Gen. (C), 180, 183, 263. 

Leigh, Captain (C), 143. 

Lincoln, Abraham, issues Proclamation of 
Emancipation, 8,11; opposition to, 9; mes- 
sage of, to Congress, 13, 14; discouragement 
of his supporters, 15, appoints a Minister 
to Great Britain, 17; efforts to influence 
him against Grant, 57; authorizes the en- 
listment of negroes, 96; appoints Burnside 
commander of the Army of the Potomac, 
99; appoints Hooker to succeed Burnside, 
100; sends despatch to Hooker, 103; letter 
of English working-people to, 120; sends 
a message to the same, 123; accepts the res- 
ignation of General Revere, 150; sends or- 
ders to Hooker, 159; sends Mr. Vallandig- 
ham south, 162; advises Hooker,168,174; or- 
ders Pennsylvania to prepare for invasion, 
175 ; appoints Meade to succeed Hooker, 
189, 190; regard of for General Reynolds, 
207 ; spoken of by pickets at Vicksburg, 
298; mentioned by a Richmond paper, 313; 
his suspension of the writ of habeas corpus 
legalized, 318; replies to Mr. Vallandigham, 
319; denounced by a mob at New York, 
322, 326; appoints General Gillraore, 333; 
allows the employment of colored soldiers, 
343; deeply affected by misery in Tennes- 
see, 378 ; receives despatch from Rosecrans, 
418; his proclamation known to slaves, 475; 
calls for more men, 477. 

Lincoln and Company, 476. 

Lincoln, Mayor (U. ), 327. 

Lindsay, General (U.), 40. 

Lindsay, Mr. (British), 164, 165, 166. 

Lock wood's brigade (U.), 261. 

Logan, John A., Gen. (U.), 67, 68, 69, 70, 285, 
292, 293, 301, 304. 

Long, Colonel (U.), 461. 

Longstreet, James, Gen. (C), moves to Suf- 
folk, 109, 110, 111, 112; summoned by Lee 
to Chancellorsville,113; at Fredericksburg, 
160 ; consults with Lee, 161 ; moves tow- 
ards Culpeper, 166, 167; sends Harrison as 
scout, 174 ; on the eastern slope of Blue 
Ridge, 177; sends McLaws to aid Stuart, 
184; near Chambersburg, 188; receives in- 
formation from Harrison, 193 ; ordered tow- 
ards Gettysburg, 194; at Greenwood, Pa., 
197; at Cashtown, 210; at Gettysburg, 225, 
230, 231, 235, 236, 238, 239, 254, 257, 259, 
260, 262, 263, 264, 265, 266, 269, 270 ; de- 
scribes the close of the battle, 276; talks 



486 



INDEX. 



with Lieutenant-colonel Freemantle, 277; 
predicted the result, 279; sends troops to 
Bragg, 391,398; joins Bragg at Chickamau- 
ga, 401 ; in battle, 407, 408, 410, 413, 415, 
416, 417. 418; Bragg's success due to his 
troops, 421, 426 ; attacks Geary at Wau- 
hatchie, 431 ; sent to East Tennessee, 434, 
437, 438, 441 , calls for reinforcements, 442; 
his absence cripples Bragg,446,455; check- 
ed at Campbell's Station, 456, 457; attacks 
Fort Sanders, 458, 460 ; moves east, 461, 
467. 

Loriug, General (C), 284, 297, 307. 

Lowe, Mr. (U.), 152. 

Lowery, General (C), 472. 

Lyons, Lord (Britisii), 18. 

Lytle, William H., Gen. (U.), 407, 409. 

M.\cDoNALD, M.iJOR (C), 348. 

Magruder, John B., Gen. (C). 36., 

Mahone, General (C), 156, 259. 

Maine Regiment (U.), First, 179; Fourth, 243, 
245; Ninth, 338, 341, 345; Sixteenth, 213, 
Twentieth, 247. 

Mallou's brigade (U.), 464. 

Manigault's brigade (C), 417. 

Mann, Dudley (C), 476. 

Mason, John M. (C), appointed Minister to 
England, and seizure, 20 ; his release de- 
manded by England, 24 ; surrendered to 
England, 26 ; in England, 27, 123; writes 
to Mr Benjamin, 165,330,331; states the 
opposition to slavery in England, 475, 477. 

Massachusetts Regiment (U.), First, 143, 144, 
234; Second. 150, 261; Twelfth, 204, 215; 
Thirteenth, 213, 215, Nineteenth, 276,464, 
Twenty -first, 457; Twenty - fourth, 360; 
Twenty-ninth, 459. 460; Fifty-Fourth, 342, 
344, 345, 346, 349, 350. 

Matthias's brigade (U.), 448. 

Maxey, General (C), 68. 

Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, 30, 32, 199, 
474 

Maynard, Horace (U.), 368. 

Mc Arthur, John, Gen. (U.), 292, 293. 

McClellan, George B., Gen. (U.), 87,135,168, 
185, 325. 

McClernand, John A., Gen. (U.), 40, 57, 67, 
73. 289, 290, 292, 293. 

McCook, Daniel, Gen. (U.), 390, 392, 395,396, 
397, 398, 399, 405, 407, 408, 409, 413, 415, 416. 

McDougall's brigade (U.), 261. 

McGilvery, Colonel (U.), 240, 248, 249, 250, 
254, 265, 277, 331. 

McGowan, General (C), 149, 150, 214, 265. 



Mcintosh, John B., Col. (U.), 104, 263. 

McLain, General (U.), 138, 139. 

McLaws, General (C), 131, 132, 145, 156, 197, 
235, 286, 269, 391, 401, 457, 460. 

McNair's brigade (C), 297, 398, 417. 

McPherson, James B., Gen. (U.), 52, 67, 68, 
286, 289, 290, 292, 293, 304. 

Meade, George G., Gen. (U.), commands the 
Fifth Corps at Chancellorsville, 147, 148; 
commander of Army of the Potomac, 189; 
addresses the army, 190; orders the army 
north, 194; at Taneytown, 196; receives a 
messenger from Gettysburg, 201 ; desires to 
avoid battle, 216; gives General Hancock 
command at Gettysburg, 224, 225 ; arrives 
at Gettysburg, 228, 229, 231, 232, 233, 234, 
235, 239, 240, 245, 249, 250, 259, 260, 266, 
269,270; consults with othcers, 281; delays 
action, 282; his army mentioned by Rich- 
mond paper, 813 ; England hears of his 
victory, 882; on the Rapidau, 462; crosses 
the Rappahannock, 463; at Centreville,465; 
at Culpeper, 466. 

Meredith, Solomon, Gen. (U.), 203, 205, 206, 
207, 208, 212, 219. 

Merkle, Lieutenant (U.), 213, 217. 

Merritt, Wesley, Gen. (U.), 277. 

Michigan Regiment (U.), Seventeenth, 458; 
Twentieth, 459, 460 ; Twenty-fourth, 128, 
220. 

Miller, Captain (U.), 253. 

Miller, Josephine (U.), 234. 237, 250. 

Miller, Lieut. -col. (U.), 207. 

Milroy, Robert H., Gen. (U.), 174, 175. 

Milton, Lieutenant (U.), 248, 249. 

Minnesota Regiment, First (U.), 253, 254, 381, 
464. 

Minty, Colonel (U.), 890. 896, 399. 

Mississippi Regiment (C), Twenty-first, 249. 

Missouri Regiment (U.), Seventh, 292; Eighth^ 
56. 

Montgomery, Colonel (C), 304. 

Moor, General (U.), 468. 

Moore's brigade (C), 285. 

Morgan, General (U.), 40. 

Morgan, John (C), 328, 829, 330. 

Morris, Sergeant (U.), 215. 

Morrow, Colonel (U.), 212, 219, 220. 

Morton, Oliver P., Gov. of Indiana (U.), 13. 

Mott's brigade (U.), 148, 149. 

Muraford, Colonel (C), 168. 178, 179, 180, 184. 

Mysenburg, Colonel (U.), 208. 

Napoleon, Louis, Emperor of France, 27, 
30, 165, 166, 199, 474. 



INDEX. 



487 



Neglev, James S., Gen. (U.), 395, 396, 402, 
413,'416. 

Neill's brigade (U.), 261. 

;Xew Hampshire Regiment (U.), Third, 341; 
Seventh, 341. 

ISTew Jersey Regiment (U.), First, 278; Third, 
149; Seventh, 149; Twelfth, 264. 

Xew York Regiment (U.), Second, 178, 179; 
Fourth. 107. 179; Fifth, 226; Sixth, 140; 
Seventh, 327; Eleventh, 326; Fourteenth, 
206,208; Forty-second, 464; Forty-seventh, 
206; Forty - eighth, 341, 345. 349; Sixty- 
eighth, 137; Seventy - sixth, 206; Seventy- 
ninth, 458; Eighty - second, 464; Eighty- 
ninth, 112; Ninety-fo\irth,213; Ninety-fifth, 
206, 208; Ninety -seventh, 208, 223; One 
Hundredth, 341 ; One Hundred and Fourth, 
213, 215 ; One Hundred and Nineteenth, 
139; One Hundred and Forty-seventh, 207; 
One Hundred and Fifty-fourth. 223; One 
Hundred and Fifty-seventh, 140. 

Newman, Captain (U.), 12. 

Newman, Sergeant (U.), 201, 205. 

Newspapers: Charleston Courier (C), 7; 
Charleston Mercury (C), 7; Knoxville Whig 
(U.), 368 ; London Illustrated Neics, 116, 
119; London Times, 96, 123; JSew Orleans 
Picayune (C), 95; New York Tribune (U.). 
326; Richmond Examiner (C), 160; Rirh- 
mond Whig (C), 8; London Saturday Re- 
view, 123. 

Newton, John, Gen. (U.), 155, 156. 

Nichols's brigade (C), 149, 152. 

North Carolina Regiment (C), Second, 226; 
Fourth, 180; Fifth, 180; Fifty -first, 348; 
Fifty-fifth, 207. 

O'Brien, Colonel (U.), 326. 

Ohio Regiment (U.), Sixth, 107; Eighth, 276; 
Eleventh, 213; Twenty-fifth, 139, 217; Six- 
ty-second, 341; Sixty-seventh, 341; Seven- 
ty-third, 139; Seventy -fifth, 217; Eiglity- 
second, 140; One Hundred and Seventh, 
217, 258. 

O'Neal's brigade (C), 214, 215, 259. 

Ord, Edward O., Gen. (U), 304, 307. 

O'Rorke, Colonel (U.), 245, 247. 

Osborne, Major (U.), 233, 271, 272. 

Osterhaus's division (U.), 69, 73, 294, 421, 441, 
445, 448, 452. 

Paine's division (U.). 308. 

Palmer, John M., Gen. (U.), 396, 397. 402, 

405, 407, 413, 417, 418, 427, 442. 
Palmerston, Lord (British), 475. 



Parke, John G , Gen. (U.). 297, 307. 

Parke, Captain (C), 244. 

Paul, Gabriel R., Gen. (U.), 213, 215, 220. 

Paxon, Captain (U.), 349. 

Paxton's brigade (C), 36, 152. 

Payne, Colonel (C), 226. 

Peace Democracy, 57, 321. 

Peck, J. J., Gen. (U.), 110, 111, 128. 

Pemberton, John C, Gen. (C), at Vicksburg, 
2; learns Grant's movements, 54; his army 
scattered, 65; sends reinforcements to Jack- 
son and Port Gibson, 66; receives messages 
from .Jefferson Davis, 67; consults with of- 
ficers, 69 ; at Champion Hills, 70, 73 ; his 
messenger captured, 81 ; Mr. Sheddon plans 
his relief, 161; returns to Vicksburg, 283; 
messages to and from Johnston, 284, 285; 
losses from previous engagements, 286 ; 
Grant's estimate of his strength, 289; lacks 
ammunition, 290 ; probable loss, 294 ; re- 
ceives message from Johnston, 298 ; re- 
ceives a letter from his soldiers, 303; sur- 
renders Vicksburg and troops, 304, 307. 

Pender, W. D., Gen. (C), 143, 197, 202, 203, 
205, 214, 219, 264. 

Pendleton, Wm. N., Gen. (C), 155, 166. 

Pennsylvania Regiment (U.), Third, 104, 108; 
Fourth, 104; Eighth, 140; Eleventh, 213; 
Sixteenth, 104 ; Seventeenth, 140 ; Forty- 
eighth, 457; Fifty-sixth, 206; Sixty-ninth, 

275, 276; Seventy-first, 275, 276; Seventy- 
sixth, 338, 341, 345; Eighty -eighth, 215; 
One Hundred and Eighteenth, 249 ; One 
Hundred and Forty-ninth, 220; One Hun- 
dred and Fiftieth, 204; One Hundred and 
Fifty-third, 137. 

Perkins, Chief-justice of Indiana, 12. 
Perrin's brigade (C), 219. 
Perry's brigade (C), 265, 276. 277. 
Pettigrew's brigade (C), 196, 214, 265, 271, 

276, 277, 282. 
Phelps, General (U.), 96. 

Pickett, George E., Gen. (C), moves to Suf- 
folk under Longi5treet, 109, 111 ; guards 
supplies at Chambensburg, 197, 231 ; ar- 
rives at Gettysburg, 259; his troops select- 
ed to attack Meade, 260, 262, 264, 265, 269, 
270; in battle, 271, 272, 275; defeated, 276, 
278, 279, 280. 281 ; his defeat the ebb-tide 
of the Confederacy. 332. 

Pierce, Franklin, ex-President, 320. 

Pio Nono, Pope, 476. 

Pleasonton, Alfred, Gen. (U.), 129. 140, 142, 
167, 169, 170, 178, 180, 183, 184, 188, 281, 
463. 



488 



INDEX. 



Polk, Leonidas, Gen. (C), advises retreat 
from Murfreesboro, 385 , at Shelbyville, 
386 ; blamed bj' Bragg, 396 ; at Cliicka- 
maiiga, 401, 405; does not attack as or- 
dered, 406; his troops dispirited, 415, 416; 
arrested by Bragg, 420, 424. 

Porter, David D., Admiral (U.), 48, 51, 54, 55, 
62, 290. 

Posey's brigade (C), 259, 265, 465. 

Postles, Captain (U.), 264. 

Preston's division (C), 402, 405, 408, 409. 

Proclamation of Emancipation, 8, 94, 120, 
124, 163, 298. 

Proclamation of Martial Law, 11. 

Pugel, Lieutenant (U. ), 201. 

Putnam, Colonel (U.), 341, 345, 347. 

QuANTRELL, W. C. (C). 381, 383, 383. 
Quinby's brigade (U.), 292, 293. 

Ramseur, S. D., Gen. (C), 214. 

Randolph, Captain (U.), 134. 

Ransom, T. E. G., Gen. (U.), 292, 293. 

Raum, G. B., Gen. (U.), 448. 

Reed, Lieutenant (C), 351, 352. 

Regulars, U. S., 246; First, 107; Fifth, 107. 

Remington, Major (U.), 188. 

Renshaw, Commodore (U.), 36, 39. 

Revere, General (U.), 149. 

Reynolds, John F., Gen. (U.), 147, 188, 195, 

196, 201, 202, 203, 205, 206. 207, 209, 212. 
Reynolds, Joseph J., Gen. (U.), 402, 405, 407, 

408.413,415,417. 
Reynolds's brigade (C), 285, 451. 
Rhett, Colonel (C), 356. 
Rhind, Captain, Navy (U.), 93. 
Rhode Island Regiment (U.), First, 107, 178, 

180, 183; Fourth, 107. 
Richards, Doctor (U.), 186. 
Richards, Miss (U.), 186. 
Rickett, General (C), 94, 359. 
Robbing, Color-sergeant (U.), 183. 
Robertson, Frank, Captain (C), 179. 
Robertson, General (C), 180, 183, 193, 195, 

243, 245, 247. 
Robinson's brigade (U.), 208, 210, 213, 219, 

220, 264. 
Rodes, Lieutenant (U.), 201. 
Rode.s's division (C), 132, 136, 173,185, 192, 

197, 215, 216, 220, 264, 265. 
Rodgers, Captain, Navy (U.), 93. 
Roebuck, Mr. (British), 164, 165, 166, 168, 

330, 332. 
Rosecrans, William S., Gen. (U.), his army 
damaged by Confederate cavalry, 128; pre- 



pares to attack Bragg at Tullahoma, 160, 
161; sends reinforcements to Grant, 297; 
forces Bragg from Tennessee, 316 ; at 
Murfreesboro, 328, 385; advances towards 
Chattanooga, 378 ; drives Bragg to Chat- 
tanooga, 386, 389; forces him farther on, 
390 ; misled by Halleck's despatches, 392: 
his army scattered, 395, 396, 397 ; rein- 
forced by Granger, 398; concentrates his 
army, 397: headquarters at Chickamauga, 
401; attacked by Bragg, 402; prepares for 
second day's fight, 405; in battle, 407, 408, 
410, 413 ; driven towards Rossville, 414, 
415 : rides to Chattanooga, 416, 417, 418, 
419, 420 ; succeeded by Thomas, 422 ; ex- 
plains the situation to Grant, 425, 426. 

Rost, P. S. (C), 16. 

Rowley's brigade (U.), 208, 210, 212, 219. 

Ruffm, Colonel (C), 463. 

Ruger, General (U.), 150, 260. 261. 

Russell, Lord John (British), 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 
26, 32, 33, 363, 364. 

Russell's brigade (U.), 156, 466. 

Sanders, General (U.), 457. 

Scales's brigade (C), 214, 219, 265. 

Scammon, General (U.), 468. 

Schenck, General (U.), 174, 175, 178. 

Schimmelpfennig, General (U.), 139, 213, 219, 
223. 

Schofield, General (U.). 297. 

Schurz, General (U.), 135, 139, 209, 210, 216, 
431. 

Scott, Thomas A., Gen. (U.), 421. 

Seddon, Secretary (C), 161. 

Sedgwick. General (U.), 129, 131, 135, 147, 
14S, 152, 155, 157, 158, 196, 281, 468. 

Semmep, Raphael (C), 34, 35, 245, 247, 248. 

Serrell, Colonel (U.), 359. 

Seward, AVilliam E. (U.), 14, 20, 26. 

Seymour, General (U.), 341, 343, 344, 345, 
347, 348. 

Seymour, Horatio, Governor (U.), 319, 322, 
326. 

Shackelford. General (U.). 381. 

Shaler, General (U.), 155, 261. 

Shaw, Colonel (U.), 342, 344, 345, 346, 349, 
350. 

Sheffield, Colonel (C), 243. 

Sheridan, General (U.). at Chickamauga, 
402, 408, 409, 415, 416, 41'., 418; at Look- 
out Mountain, 442; at Missionary Ridge, 
449, 450, 451. 

Sherman, Thomas W. (U.), 95, 308. 

Sherman, William T. (U.), takes Fort Hind- 



INDEX. 



489 



man, 40, 43; receives message from Admi- 
ral Porter, 55; joins Porter, 56; liis advice 
rejected by Grant, 58; threatens Haines's 
Bluff, 65; moves to Hard Times, 66; en- 
ters Jackson, 68; commands the Fifteenth 
Corps, 67 ; at Jackson, 68 ; closes roads 
north-east of Vicksburg, 285, 286; attacks 
the city,289,291,293; turns Johnston back, 
307 ; at Jackson, 308 ; takes Jackson and 
goes west, 312; takes possession of Cum- 
berland Gap, 381 ; reaches Chattanooga, 433, 
438 ; crosses the creek, 441 ; attacks i\Iis- 
sionary Ridge, 443, 446, 448, 449; sent to 
Burnside's aid at Knoxville, 455, 458, 460, 
461. 
Ships : Achilles (U.), 120 ; Agrippina (C), 
33; Alabama (C), 34, 39, 120, 124, 164. 199; 
Albatross (U.), 43, 48; Alert (Uj, 112; Al- 
fred Partridge (C), 351; Archer (U.), 351, 
352 ; Augusta (U.), 87 ; Bahama (C), 33 ; 
Barney (U.), 112; Bayou City (C), 36-; 
Benton (U.), 62, 290 ; Brooklyn (U.), 40 ; 
Caleb Gushing (U.), 351, 352; Carondelet 
(U.). 62, 290 ; Catskill (U.), 88, 92, 93,- Ce- 
res (U.), 109; Chattanooga (U.), 432; Chi- 
cora (C), 83, 87; Cincinnati (U.), 299, 300; 
City of Vicksburg (C). 48; Clarence (U.), 
351; Clifton (U.), 39; Cceur de Lion (U.). 
112 ; Corypheus (U.). 36 ; Enrica (B.), 32 ; 
Essex (U.), 44; Fingal (C), 352, 353; Flor- 
ida (C), 32,120,124,164,351; Forest Queen 
(U.),62; Genesee (U.), 43, 47; George Gris- 
wold (U.), 120 ; Gordon (B.). 20 ; Harriet 
Lane (U.), 36; Hartford (U.), 43, 44, 48, 95; 
Hatteras (U.), 39; Henry Clay (U.), 62, 65; 
Hercules (B.), 33; Hetzel (U.), 109; Hou- 
satonic(U.), 87; Hunchback (U.), 109; Im- 
perial (U.), 312; Indianola (U.), 48, 51; Ja- 
cob Bell (B.), 124, Keokuk (U.), 88. 92, 
93 ; Keystone State (U.), 87; Kineo (U.), 
43, 47; Lafayette (U.), 62; Louisville (U.), 
62; Memphis (U.), 87; Mercedita (U.), 84; 
Merrimac (C), 83, 110, Mississippi (U.), 44, 
48; Monarch (U.), 40; Monitor (U.), 83, 110; 
Monongahela (U.), 43, 47 ; Montauk (U.), 
83, 87, 92; Mound City (U.), 62, 290, 
Mount Washington (U.), 112, Nahant(U.), 
88, 92, 93, 352 Nantucket (U.), 88, 92; 
Nashville (C), 87; Neptune (C), 36, 39; 
New Ironsides (U.), 83, 88, 92, 94, 338, 342, 
355, 360, 363 ; Ocmulgee (U.), 34 ; Owasco 
(U.). 36, 39 ; Palmetto State (C), 83, 84, 
87; Passaic (U.), 88, 92; Patapsco (U.), 88, 
92, 93; Pittsburg (U.), 62; Price (U.), 62; 
Princess Royal (B.), 84; Quaker City (U.), 



87; Queen of the West (U.j, 48, 51 ; Rich- 
mond (U.),43,47; Rinaldo(B.),26; Sachem 
(U.), 36; San Jacinto (U.), 20, 21; Silver 
Wave (U.), 55, 62; Star of the West (U.), 
333; Starlight (U.), 34; Stepping Stones 
(U.), 112; Sumter (C), 34; Tacony (U.), 
351 ; Trent (B.), 20 ; Tuscumbia (U.), 62, 
290; Webb (C), 48; Weehawkeu (U.), 88, 
91, 93, 352, 363; Westfield (U.), 39; Whist- 
ling Wind CU.). 351. 

Shoup, General (C), 285. 

Sickles, General (U.), 131, 133, 134, 140, 141, 
145, 146, 148, 150, 151, 196, 212, 234, 235, 
236, 239, 240, 245, 248, 249. 

Slaves, enlistment of, 94, 95, 96. 

Slidell, John (C), appointed Minister to 
France, and seized, 20; England demands 
his release, 24; surrendered to England, 26; 
writes to 3Ir. Benjamin, 27, 166, 331 ; inter- 
views Napoleon, 31, 165; states the opposi- 
tion to slavery in France, 476, 477. 

Slocum, General (U.), 129, 133, 142, 151, 189, 
196, 212, 214, 216, 228, 229, 250, 261, 362, 421. 

Smith, A. J. (U.), 69, 73. 

Smith, General (C), 219, 259, 304. 

Smith, Giles A. (U.), 55, 291, 293, 441. 

Smith, J. E. (U.), 70, 292, 448. 

Smith, Kirby(U.), 291. 

Smith, Morgan L. (U.). 448. 

Smith, W. S. (U.), 297, 307. 

Smith, William F. (U.), 425, 438, 441. 

Smyth's brigade (U.), 264, 276. 

Spence, James (British), 164, 165. 

Spinola, General (U.), 109. 

Sprague, Governor (U.), 96. 

Stannard's brigade (U.), 2.54, 264, 276. 

Stanton, Edwin M. (U.), 421, 422. 

Steedman, General (U.), 399, 415, 416, 417, 
418. 

Steele, General (U.), 66. 

Steele's division (U.), 291, 293, 307. 

Steinwehr, General (U.), 135, 310, 313. 

Stevens, Alexander H. (C), 475. 

Stevens, Colonel (U.), 150, 213. 

Stevenson, General (C), 285, 300, 304, 431, 
432, 442, 445, 446. 

Stevenson, General (U.), 68, 70, 73, 292 341, 
348. 

Stewart's division (C), 402, 407, 408, 409, 448, 
452. 

Stone's brigade (U.), 212. 

Stoneman, General (U.), 128, 129, 140, 159. 

Stoughton, Colonel (U.), 243, 347. 

Strong, General (U.), 334, 337, 338, 341, 344, 
345r346, 347, 348, 349. 



490 



INDEX. 



Stuart, J. E. B. (C), at Cliancellorsville, 132, 
138, 136; commander of Jackson's troops, 
145, 147, 148, 149, 151; left to feign bat- 
tle with Hooker, 158; cavalry command- 
er, 166; reviews his troops, 168; at Brandy 
Station, 169, 170, 173, 174; sends orders to 
Mumford, 179; defeated at Middleburg and 
Aldie, 183, 184; instructions from Lee, 185; 
crosses the Potomac, 188; captures a wagon- 
train, 190; his position unknown to Lee, 
192, 194, 210; censured by Soutliern writers, 
193; engages with Kilpatrick at Hanover, 
226; arrives at Gettysburg, 259; his part in 
the battle, 262, 263, 278; meets Kilpatrick 
at Williamsport, 281 ; his signals read in 
the Union army, 462; engages in a skirmish 
near Callett's Stalion, 463. 

Suhrer, Lieutenant (U.), 258. 

Sumner's corps (U.), 350. 

Sweitzer's brigade (U. ), 246. 

Sykes, General (U.), 131, 148, 196, 245, 281, 463. 

Taliaferro, General (C), 344. 

Taney, Roger B., 343. 

Tennes.see Regiment, First (C), 207, 452. 

Terry, General (U.), 334, 338, 343. 

Thoburn's brigade (U.), 468. 

Thomas, General (C), 214, 265. 

Thomas, George H. (U.), 390, 392, 395, 396, 
397, 398, 399, 400, 401, 402, 405, 406, 407, 
408, 409, 413, 414, 415, 416, 417, 418, 419, 
422, 425, 437, 445, 446, 451, 458. 

Thomas, Lieutenant (U. ), 345. 

Thomas's battery (U.), 253, 254. 

Thompson, Lieutenant-colonel (U.), 183. 

Thompson's brigade (C), 263. 

Thomson, Major (U.), 142. 

Tilghman, General (C), 73. 

Tilton's brigade (U.), 246, 249. 

Todd, Major (C), 185. 

Torbet's brigade (U.), 156. 

Tracy, General (C), 66. 

Trimble, General (C), 264. 

Turchin's brigade (U.), 457. 

Turner (C), 452. 

Tuttle, General (U.), 66, 291, 293. 

Tyler, Robert (C), 265, 275, 276. 

Ulmer. Lieutenant (U.), 207. 
Upton, General (U.), 466. 

Vallandigham, Mr. (C), 162, 318. 
Van Cleve's division (U.). 396, 397, 402, 405. 
Vaughn, General (C). 74, 285. 460. 
Venable, Colonel (C), 230. 



Viele, General (U.). 110, 113. 

Vincent, General (U.), 184, 245, 247, 331. 

Virginia Cavalry, Sixth (C), 169. 

Virginia Regiment (C), First, 108, 178; Sec- 
ond, 108, 178 ; Third, 108, 178 ; Fourth, 
108, 178; Fifth, 108, 178; Ninth, 184; Fif- 
ty-third, 265. 

Von Amsberg, General (U.), 213, 214. 

Von Fitsh, Captain (U.), 135. 

Von Gilsa's brigade (U.), 135, 213, 217, 219. 

Wadsworth's division (U.), 202, 203, 206, 

207, 208, 216. 
Wagner, Sergeant (U.), 446. 
Wagner's brigade (U.), 390, 419, 450, 451. 
Wainwright, Captain, Navy (U.), 39. 
Wainwright, Colonel (U.), 151. 
Walker, Major (C), 148. 
Walker, W. L. C, Gen. (C), 67, 68, 401, 402, 

405, 407, 413, 446, 464. 
Walworth's brigade (U.), 407, 409. 
Ward, Colonel (U.), 112. 
Ward's brigade (U.), 145, 240, 243, 244, 245, 

246, 247. 
Warren, General (U.), 131, 145, 155, 228, 229, 

245, 463, 464, 465. 
Washburne, General (U.), 297. 
Washington Artillery (C), 269. 
Washington, Captain (U.), 289. 
Waul, General (C), 285. 
Webb's brigade (U.), 275, 464. 
Weed, Captain (U.), 151, 247. 
Weitzel, General (U.), 308. 
Wells, Colonel (U.), 468. 
Wells, Lieutenant (U.), 140. 
Wheaton's brigade (U.), 261. 
Wheelock, Colonel (U.), 223. 
Wherum, Adjutant (U.), 215. 
Whipple's division (U.), 134, 142, 147, 148. 
Whitaker, Lieutenant (U.), 248, 249. 
Whitaker's brigade (U.), 415, 416, 417. 
White's division (U.), 457. 
Whittier, Lieutenant (U.), 258. 
Wickliffe, Mr.,95. 
WMlbowen, Captain (C), 14-3. 
Wilcox, Gen. (C), 155, 250, 253, 265, 376, 277. 
Wilder, General (U.), 390, 396, 399, 401. 
Wilkes, C. H., Commodore (U.), 20, 21, 26. 
Wilkeson, Lieutenant (U.), 213, 217, 218. 
Willard, Captain (U.), 345. 
Willard, General (U. ). 250, 331. 
Williams, General (U.), 134. 
Williams's division (U.), 148, 149, 150. 
Willich's brigade (U.), 450, 451. 
Wilson, Captain (U.), 446. 



INDEX. 



491 



Wisconsin Regiment (U.), Second, 206, 208; 

Third, 150; Sixtli, 208; Twenty-sixtli, 139, 

140. 
Witliers, General (C), 385. 
Wofford's brigade (C), 244, 245, 248, 249. 
Wood, Fernando, 162. 
Wood, General (C), 407. 
Wood. General (U.), 395, 396, 397, 399, 402, 

407, 408, 413, 415, 416, 417, 418, 442, 445, 

449, 450. 



Wood, William B., Colonel (C), 370, 372. 
Woods, Sergeant (U.), 446. 
Worden, Captain, Navy (U.), 87. 
Wright's brigade (C), 132, 265. 
Wyudham, Colonel (U.), 130, 170. 

Yancy, William L. (C), 16. 
Young, Adjutant (U.). 258. 

ZooK, General (U.), 346. 



THE END. 



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8vo, Ornamental Cloth, |1 25. 

CAMP LIFE IN THE WOODS; AND THE TRICKS OF TRAPPING AND TRAP 
MAKING. By W. Hamilton Gibson, Author of "Pastoral Days." Illustrated by 
the Author. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00. 

'HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE" SERIES. Illustrated. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00 per vol. 
The Adventures of Jimmy Brown. Written by Himself, and Edited by W. L. Alden. — 
The Cruise of the Canoe Club. The Cruise of the " Ghost." The Moral Pirates. The 
Xeav Robinson Crusoe. By VV. L. Alden. — Toby Tyler ; or. Ten Weeks with a Circus. 
Mr. Stubbs's Brother : A Sequel to " Toby Tyler." Tim and Tip ; on, The Adventures of a 
Boy and a Dog. Left Behind; or, Ten Days a Newsboy. Raising the "Pearl." Silent 
Pete. By James Otis. — The Story of Music and Musicians. Jo's Opportunity. Rolf 
House. Mildred's Bargain, and Other Stories. Nan. The Colonel's Money. By Lucy 
C. LiLLiE. — The Four Macnicols. By William Black. — Thk Lost City; or, The Boy Ex- 
plorers IN Central Asia. Into Unknown Skas. By David Ker. — The Talking Leaves. 
An Indian Story. Two Arrows: A Story of Red and White. By W. 0. Stoddard. — Who 
Was Paul Grayson? By John Habbkrton, Author of " Helen's Babies." — Prince Lazy- 
bones, AND Other Stories. By Mrs. W. J. Hays. — The Ice Queen. By Ernest Ingersoll. — 
Wakulla: A Story of Adventure in Florida. The Flamingo Feather. Dehrick Ster- 
ling. By O.K. MuNROE. — Strange Stories from History. By George Cary Eggleston. 

SELF-HELP.— CHARACTER. —THRIFT.— DUTY. By Samuel Smiles. 12mo, 
Cloth, $1 00 each. 

MEN OF INVENTION AND INDUSTRY. By Samuel Smiles. 12mo, Cloth, $1 00. 

LIFE AND LABOR ; or. Characteristics of Men of Industry, Culture, and Genius. By 
Samuel Smiles. 12mo, Cloth, |1 00. 

ROUND THE WORLD. Including a Residence in Victoria, and a Journey by Rail 
across North America. By a Boy. Edited by Samuel Smiles. Illustrated. 12mo, 
Cloth, $1 50. 

LIFE OF A SCOTCH NATURALIST : Thomas Edward, Associate of the Linntean 
Society. By Samuel Smiles. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. 

ROBERT DICK, Baker of Thur=5o; Geologist and Botanist. By Samuel Smiles. 
Illustrated. 13mo, Cloth, $1 50. 

JAMES NASMYTH, ENGINEER. An Autobiography. Edited by Samuel Smiles. 
Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, 81 50. 

THE LIVES OF THE STEPHENSONS. Comprising, also, a History of the Inven- 
tion and Introduction of the Railway Locomotive. By Samuel Smiles. Illustrated. 
8vo, Cloth, $3 00. 

THE STARTLING EXPLOITS OF DR. J. B. QUIES. From the French of Paul 
CELit,RE. By Mrs. Cashel Hoey and Mr. John Lillie. Profusely Illustrated. 
Crown Svo, Extra Cloth, $1 75. 

FROJil THE FORECASTLE TO THE CABIN. By Captain S. Samuels. Illustrated. 
12mo, Extra Cloth, |1 50. 



Interesting Books for Boi/s. 



MICROSCOPY FOR BEGINNERS ; OR, COMMON OBJECTS FROM THE PONDS 
AND DITCHES. By Alfred C. Stokes, M.D. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. 

MARY AND MARTHA. The Mother and the Wife of George Washington. By Ben- 
son J. LossiNG, LL.D., Author of "Field-book of the Revolution," "Field-book of 
the War of 1812," " Cyclopaedia of United States History," &c. Illustrated by Fac- 
similes of Pen-and ink Drawings by H. Rosa. 8vo, Ornamental Cloth, $2 50. 

THE STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY, FOR BOYS. By Benson J. 
LossiNU, LL.D. Illustrated. 12mo, Half Leather, $1 75. 

THE BOY'S BOOK OF BATTLE LYRICS. By TiioaiAS Dunn English, LL.D. 

Illustrated. Square Svo, Illuminated Cloth, $3 00. 

GAMES AND SONGS OF AMERICAN CHILDREN. Collected and Compared by 
William Wells Newell. Square Svo, Cloth, $1 50. 

THE ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG NATURALIST. By Lucien Biart. With 117 
Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth, |1 75. 

AN INVOLUNTARY VOYAGE. By Lucien Biart. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, |1 25. 

THE CHILDREN OF OLD PARK'S TAVERN. A Story of the South Shore. By 
Frances A. Humphrey. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00. 

ILLUSTRATED HISTORIES. By Jacob and John S. C. Abbott. Illustrated with 
numerous Engravings. 16mo, Cloth, |1 00 per vol. The volumes may be obtained 
separately; or the set complete, in six boxes, .$32 00. 



CYRUS THE GREAT. 

DARIUS THE GREAT. 

XERXES. 

ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 

ROMULUS. 

HANNIBAL. 

PYRRHUS. 

JULIUS CvESAR. 

CLEOPATRA. 

NERO. 

ALFRED THE GREAT. 

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 

RICHARD L 

RICHARD IL 

RICHARD in. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
CHARLES L 
CHARLES IL 
JOSEPHINE. 
MARIA ANTOINETTE. 
MADAME ROLAND. 
HENRY IV. 

MARGARKT OF ANJOU. 
PETER THE GREAT. 
GENGHIS KHAN. 
KING PHILIP. 
HERNANDO CORTEZ. 
JOSEPH BONAPARTE. 
QUEEN HORTENSE. 
LOUIS XIV. 



MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. | LOUIS PHILIPPE. 

DIDDIE, DUMPS, AND TOT; or. Plantation Child Life. By Louise Clark-Pyrnelle. 
Illustrated. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00. 

HOME STUDIES IN NATURE. By Mary Treat. Illustrated. 12mo, OrnamcLtal 
Cloth, 90 cents. 

TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL-DAYS. By an Old Boy Illustrated by Artttttr Hughes 
and Sydney P. Hall. Svo, Paper, 40 cents. 

TOM BROWN AT OXFORD. By the Author of " Tom Brown's School-Days." With 
Illustrations by Sydney P. Hall. Svo, Paper, 60 cents. 
School-Days and Oxford — in one volume. 8w, Cloth, $1 50. 



Interesting Books for Boys. 



FRANCONIA STORIES. By Jacob Abbott. Numerous Illustrations. Complete in 
10 vols., 16mo, Cloth, 75 cents eucli. The vols, may be obtained separately; or the set 
complete, in neat case, $7 50. 



MALLEVILLE. 
MARY BELL. 
ELLEN LINN. 
WALLACE. 
BEECHNUT. 



STUYVESANT. 

AGNES. 

MARY .ERSKINE. 

RODOLPHUS. 

CAROLINE. 



MARCO PAUL'S VOYAGES AND TRAVELS IN THE PURSUIT OF KNOWL- 
EDGE. By Jacob Abbott. Illustrated. Complete in 6 vols., 16mo, Cloth, 75 cents 
each. The vols, may be obtained separately ; or the set complete, in neat case, $4 50. 



IN NEW YORK. 

ON THE ERIE CANAL. 

IN THE FORESTS OF MAINE. 



IN VERMONT. 

IN BOSTON. 

AT THE SPRINGFIELD ARMORY. 



STORIES OF RAINBOW AND LUCKY. By Jacob Abbott. Illustrated. 5 vols., 
16mo, Cloth, 75 cents a volume. The vols, may be obtained separately; or the set 
complete, in neat case, $3 75. 

HANDIE. I SELLING LUCKY. 

RAINBOW'S JOURNEY. | UP THE RIVER. 

THE THREE PINES. 

SCIENCE FOR THE YOUNG. By Jacob Abbott. Illustrated. 4 vols., 12mo, Cloth, 
$1 50 each. 

HEAT. I WATER AND LAND. 

LIGHT. I FORCE. 

ANIMAL LIFE IN THE SEA AND ON THE LAND. A Zoology for Young Peo- 
ple. By Sarah Coopek. Profusely Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25. 

HOW TO GET STRONG AND HOW TO STAY SO. By William Blaikie. 16mo, 
Cloth, |1 00. 

SOUND BODIES FOR OUR BOYS AND GIRLS. By William Blaikie. With 
many Illustrations. 16mo, Cloth, 40 cents. 

FAMOUS LONDON MERCHANTS. A Book for Boys. By H. R. Fox Bourne. 

W^ith Portrait of George Peabody and Twenty-four Illustrations. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00. 

INDIAN TRAITS. Being Sketches of the Manners, Customs, and Character of the 
North American Natives. By B. B. Thatcher. Illustrated. 2 vols., 18mo, Cloth, 
$1 50. 

STORIES OF THE GORILLA COUNTRY. By Paul B. Du Chaillu. Illustrated. 
12mo, Cloth, $1 50. 

THE COUNTRY OF THE DWARFS. By Paul B. Du Chaillu. Illustrated. 12mo, 
Cloth, $1 50. 

WILD LIFE UNDER THE EQUATOR. By Paul B. Du Chaillu. Illustrated. 
12mo, Cloth, $1 50. 

MY APINGI KINGDOM : with Life in the Great Sahara, and Sketches of the Chase of 
the Ostrich, Hyena, &c. By Paul B. Du Chaillu. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. 

LOST IN THE JUNGLE. By Paul B. Du Chaillu. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. 



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